


Forced Relaunch

by Verl



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Gen, Internalized Robophobia? (yes), Keebo and Maki's no good very bad day, Post-Canon, Suicidal Thoughts, Things Will Get Better (but not yet), is it dehumanization if he's not a human to begin with, this started as a 'how could Kiibo possibly be a Mastermind' and it...got away from me. hmm., though instead of a fix it it's more of a shatter it into fragments, though mostly keebo. sorry your robot issues make you my favourite.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23277736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verl/pseuds/Verl
Summary: Death was something he'd always considered rather permanent. That's why the death games were so horrifying, but so appealing to those watching from a distance.It had been foolish to not realize anyone that much power would let those who caused them trouble get away that easily.He should have been safe. He'd been dead.The nightmare in front of him apparently didn't care about that.
Comments: 25
Kudos: 41





	1. Restart, Shutdown

Awake. Where? Ignore minor details.  
A room. Small, like a personal office. Desk, chair, computer, multiple monitors. Two figures, two lifeforms. Humans. One unknown, seated, at work. The other. The other?  
Impossible.  
A second scan. The impossibility persists.

“Y-you’re dead.” It was a statement, even though dead people did not typically stare down at your seated form from a standing position. Another contradiction snapped into place as he tried and failed to move.  
“...I’m dead?”  
His logs confirmed his last action had to be initiating the self-destruct sequence. Yet he was aware, and staring at someone who should be very, very dead. Why couldn’t he get anything below his shoulders to respond? All systems claimed everything was operational. Though he should reasonably be nothing but scattered metal fragments right this moment.

“You’re a robot. You don’t die, you just break down.” She was smiling, she was breathing, she wasn’t dead?

“How? Y-you’re dead?” He felt foolish, repeating himself like this, but this shouldn’t be possible. What he was seeing didn’t make any logical sense. This person should be dead. He should be dead. How were they having a conversation?

“This would probably be easier if we used an older backup…”

“No, this one is fine. Thank you.” She had turned at the other person’s comment, amusement contorting into annoyance in seconds.

“You’re the boss.”

She was...wrong somehow. Too tall. She seemed to slouch a bit, shoulders more forward than what proper posture would dictate. Creases in areas that had been smooth in his memory. Older. How was she older than he remembered, when she should have died? Corpses didn’t age. Unless even basic facts about humans had been a complete fabrication? No, that wasn’t a sensible conclusion.

“Keebo, you don’t seriously believe we’re going to kill a lead writer when Team Danganronpa has people literally lining up to die for us, do you?” Tsumugi was all smiles again, ignoring the other human who left the room, job apparently finished.

“Then...who died?” He couldn’t help sputtering out the question, not really sure he wanted it answered.

“A copy, a stunt double, a fake. No one died, even though you had orders to kill everyone,” she tisked at him, and he wished he could edge away. “But that wasn’t too surprising considering your character.”

Her answer contradicted itself. Was it a person who died in her place? Or not? Had he...or at least the people out there who’d killed him...killed some person who had nothing to do with the game?

If she saw concern in the robot’s face, Tsumugi ignored it. “It gave the viewers a better ending than ‘everyone committed suicide’, anyway. I didn’t think Shuichi would be that much of a troublemaker, but that little failed execution got us that happy ending they all wanted, so it was a wash, really.” She spoke as if discussing the weather, instead of people sacrificing their lives in order to try and change things for the better.

“Isn’t it over?” He had plenty of other questions such as ‘why am I sitting here’ and ‘was Angie right and I’m in some sort of robot hell’, but pursuing those questions didn’t seem like the best idea.

“You don’t end a worldwide phenomenon over an ending that doesn’t fit the formula. Oh there are plenty of angry fans, but that’s showbiz!” The slightest hint of a scowl creased her brow “Even if the salary cut was a bit much.”

He’d have slumped if he could move. So all they’d suffered, all they’d done to find a third option...the reason he’d died still didn’t matter? At all?

“After all, the viewer participation angle was a hit! Being able to see from third person but also being able to get a first person experience helped them all bond with their favourites. Overall, we had more upsides than downsides.”

“Why are you using ‘we’. Or telling me this? Why am I here?” He couldn’t mask the contempt in his voice. To be proud of that sort of thing, to revel in it was just despicable. He wasn’t even aware that he had the ability to hate someone before now, let alone this strongly.

“Your attempts to be angry are absolutely adorable, you know” she ruffled Keebo’s hair, ignoring his outraged yelp. “The sooner you get you’ve been on my side the whole time, the happier you’ll be”.

“I’ve never been on your side! The mere idea of a killing game is repulsive!”

She laughed at his denial, before grabbing the back of his head and pushing forward, forcing his gaze down towards himself. “We built you. You exist to make a killing game more entertaining, nothing more than that.”

His armour was gone, disquieting but not an issue. The fact his more fragile casing of aluminum and plastics was apparently undamaged seemed impossible, but he’d been seeing a lot of impossible so far.  
The open service panel was the real issue. What he saw wasn’t matching what should be under there.  
He would have remembered the logo that almost seemed like it was smiling back at him from the black box nestled in wires that made up his brain.  
Just looking at it made a hot, useless anger surge through every circuit.

“Miu would have seen that, and I would have too. You just defaced it.” He couldn’t believe for a second that what she was saying was the truth.  
Or more realistically, he wouldn’t.

“It would have meant nothing to either of you. Though it was hidden under the cover here.” A deft movement, a faint click and the box had a blank white face instead of the dreadful logo. “Keeps to the black and white colour scheme too. Gotta love the classics.”

Why would he question why one side was a different colour? It had always been that way.  
Not that his memories could be trusted. They must have just made sure he’d think it was normal, it must have been different before, it had to be.  
“You messed with my memory, that’s all” his denial felt weak, uncertain as he felt.

“I worked hard on that backstory you know. A robot we made for a gimmick isn’t much of a character by itself. Trust me, your previous memories? A bore. Tests and experiments with a robot that has the ability to answer questions and no desire to do anything. Absolutely had to go, or you’d be intolerable.” He was forced to look up again, locking eyes with the babbling mastermind. She seemed...excited to talk about that.  
He wanted it to be a lie, but she seemed so happy about it, so cruelly prideful that it was ringing true. The last time she’d looked like this was when she had shown off her talent’s true scope after all.

“Stop touching me!” That he could muster some energy for. Being jerked around mentally was bad enough without her forcing where he was looking.

A mistake, judging by how her grin widened. His neck creaked when she forced his chin up, uncomfortably close to her own now that she’d leaned in. “I think you might have forgotten something. You’re a thing.” the warmth was at odds at the pain in his collar. Apparently she also knew it wasn’t built to bend that way. “I can do anything I want to you.” She released him, stepping back to her previous distance with a quiet laugh.

“I-I’m not human, but I’m still a person-”

“Not even your ‘friends’ believed that, even when you bent over backwards trying to fit in.” She cut him off, eyebrow quirking when he winced at the words. “They didn’t even look for your body.”

Why was he listening to her? She’d tricked and mocked all of them the entire time. Tsumugi was simply lying again. “There shouldn’t have been anything to look for, escaping should have been their first priority”.

“How far do you think they got on foot before we picked them up?”

A cold dread seemed to settle in his spine. “They won, you had to let them go. You didn’t pick them up.” If he hoped enough, could his statements be true?  
Of course not. Yet he still clung to that hope like a lifeline.

Tsumugi tsked again, shaking a finger. “Shuichi and Himiko won. There were two sacrifices, remember?”

“Only if they took your options! Nobody did, you don’t get your sacrifices!” Fear had managed to worm its way into his voice, but he tried to reason the worry was for the others.

An easy, carefree shrug, like his words were meaningless drivel.“You can bend the rules a little to help make a more compelling story.”

“That’s cheating!” Was that really the best thing he could think of? Emotions did not make for good debating skills.

“Ah, that’s the inflexible mind of a machine talking there. Monokuma was such an absolute pain about that too. It’s very devious for a mascot that’s just meant to act in the mastermind’s stead.”

Of course she had to compare him to that evil diminutive bear. He just had to avoid taking the bait, robophobic as the remark was. So he set his jaw and tried to pretend the mostly bare office was more interesting than Tsumugi’s presence. He couldn’t read the screens from here.  
All the questions he had could wait to be answered by someone who wasn’t, in his opinion, completely evil. How he’d actually accomplish leaving here when he couldn’t move was a problem that would require more calculation.

The weight of a hand on his shoulder was disquieting, but he was resolved to ignore it. Being touched was weird. If it was a friend, that would be one thing. He didn’t want her touching him. The minuscule movement his shoulder was capable of did nothing to dislodge the unwanted touch. It was warm, it was wrong, he hated it. Even though his armour could be heavy and made his appearance more clearly robotic he desperately wished it was on right now. Then at least there’d be a layer between him and this...horrid fleshy grip.  
He lasted thirty two and a half seconds.  
“Please let go.”  
Pathetic. None of his friends would have cracked like this over a hand on their shoulder.  
His friends. She’d completely distracted him from the danger they might be in.

“Hmmm. Maybe I’ll let go if you stop being difficult.”

She was too close, he couldn’t move. He knew he couldn’t, but he still tried, which only made his discomfort increase. He had to move, he had to leave, he couldn’t stay like this.  
“...I am not being difficult.” He was weak.

“Ignoring the only person that would talk to you around here is being difficult.” His left hand was being played with, feeling fingers being curled inwards and let go with no input from him.

“You killed my friends.” Sticking to facts was easier right now, the confusing rolling emotions twisting inside him were just making everything seem worse.

“I invented your ‘friends’. That, and they weren’t your friends. They tolerated you. None of them actually considered you important.” she hummed a little, and he could recognize the motions his hand was making as matching the rhythm. “At least I’m honest with you.”

“That’s not true.” Why wouldn’t she stop toying with him? Why was he here?

“Name a single time any of them cared how you felt.”

It was a simple request. So it was probably a trick. But this urge to refute her, the need to stave off the mounting panic with anger made him speak out quickly. “Miu always asked me things, so she cared how I felt about them.”

“No, not about things. When did anyone care about your feelings, or apologize when you asked them to?” The triumph in her voice was sickening. Perhaps his first thought had been a little obvious.

“You are moving the goalposts. I answered the question.”

“The answer is never, Keebo. You were laughed off or told off every time.”

He wanted to object, to rattle off an example to prove her wrong, but the awful sensation of someone else manipulating his body made it hard to focus. His memories were locatable but they felt distant, as if in a deep fog instead of neatly sorted in his memory banks. Tampered with?

“I’ll let go if you admit that they didn’t think you were worth being a friend to.” Tsumugi sounded more like she had back when they first met. Friendly, genuine. Harmless.

She wanted him to lie, in order to stop harassing him like this. It wasn’t a huge ask.

“I will not say that.” He had to ignore these negative feelings, or the idea that going along with anything she said was reasonable. That would be letting them win. He could overcome this. Somehow. Perhaps he couldn’t actually think of a reasonable way to do that, but even still.

She’d let go, pulling at a long strand of her own hair. He couldn’t quite catch what emotion her face was expressing this time. Boredom? “Well if you insist, we can do this the fun way.”

That was not an encouraging statement. The fact he couldn’t track her movements as she stepped past the furthest angle he could turn his head only increased his unease. Footsteps didn’t tell him much. He could have reasoned she was behind him without hearing that. Despite his resolution to stay positive, all the conclusions he was coming to were decidedly negative.  
There were fingers in his back. He had expected a rougher, more fumbling grab. An annoyed child just trying to hurt him. The precice, careful movements may have been less noticeable, but infinitely more alarming.  
She knew exactly what she was looking for. She had knowledge of how he worked.  
No. Don’t believe anything. Just endure it. A twinge of pain trying to warn him did little as her hand twisted and yanked, plunging him into darkness.

“Last chance to change your mind.” her voice was a whisper, betraying how close she was. “It’s up to you.”

He’d pinpointed where that hand was now. Where it shouldn’t be, where he should reasonably be able to keep people he didn’t trust away from if he could just move. The sensation was vile, unwanted, disgusting. So many words but none of them quite captured how horribly wrong it was. Violated...might fit.  
Obey or lose your senses, and she’d already stolen his sight,  
The strange hot feeling at the indignity of it, his absolute disgust that anyone could be so monstrous was the only thing keeping him from doing what she wanted.

“No”.

“Just remember, you chose this”.

That was the last thing he heard before the second pain let him know he functionally deaf until he was fixed.  
Being alone, awake but almost completely unaware of the world around him was somehow worse than he thought it might be. He knew his body still existed, he could feel the motion of his head if he tried moving it, but beyond that he had nothing. A useless body, absolute darkness and silence with only his thoughts to occupy him.  
That, and he wasn’t even certain the thoughts were purely his own. The inner voice hadn’t been him, which he’d known on some level. Wasn’t it reasonable to assume it was possible to use that technology more subtly? To slip thoughts in his head instead of just validating he was making the right choice? They’d been able to just erase his personality completely...even if he was back now, somehow.  
That probably wasn’t a road of thought he should follow. It wasn’t impossible, yet he only had his mind right now. Distrusting every thought couldn’t be healthy.  
The small hope that this gambit would be short lived died after forty eight hours of nothing. Of course, he had plenty of practice at waiting around while others slept, but not like this.  
He should be able to keep himself distracted. Yet there was only so many times one could go over one’s memories before nitpicking at every little mistake.

  
A week of nothing felt like a month. Was he actually able to move his head and speak, or was he just imagining that? He couldn’t see movement, he couldn’t hear the gentle hum of electricity that kept him going. A week should have been enough to drain his battery and at least free him from needing to think. Being aware like this was worse than just not functioning at all.  
His battery couldn’t drain if he was hooked up to a constant supply of power. Even intentionally trying to waste electricity with his recording function couldn’t overcome that. If he was actually able to use that function. He was pretty sure he was capable of it, but without any feedback to confirm it he was left in the blank sea of uncertainty. The printer didn’t work, but he couldn’t know if that was just having nothing to put the images on to or if he’d been stripped of that upgrade when being rebuilt. Why had they bothered putting him back together? For fun? Hadn’t he been toyed with enough? What did doing this...torture to him get them?  
Charging had been a nice sensation before this. He had liked the quiet time that was the closest he got to resting. The electric current had been warm, the mild tension that made sure he didn’t forget how much energy he had left would lift. In those moments he didn’t need to be completely alert, he was safe. Perhaps close to how humans would be ‘sleepy’. Logically he was programmed to feel that way, to be calm and docile so nothing would be damaged with sudden movements. Or to keep him from getting impatient before his battery was back to full capacity. It had still been soothing, in a way.  
Now it felt more like a poison leaking in near his neck, keeping him weak but uncomfortably conscious. A viper that had dug into him and just refused to let him go. His energy would be maintained, he would be forced to remain alert and he could do nothing but despise a feeling that had once been a comfort.  
He wanted this to stop. He wanted it to be done with. Time was ever present, and it felt like it had somehow slowed. The reality was he was merely checking more and more frequently in a bored desperation to do something, anything. He knew this, but it still felt like time had decided to flow like molasses in the wintertime.  
Hadn’t it been long enough? Couldn’t it be over?  
He wanted to shut down already. Two months too many. His memories could no longer sustain his interest. Any bright parts in them had been stamped out with constant analysis.

The majority of his memories were fake anyway. He couldn’t deny the idea of a single person, no matter how smart built and raised him alone was far fetched. Even as a life’s work, constructing a body such as his would take a very different skill set than programming an AI with the ability to grow and change from multiple forms of input. In a word, it was improbable.  
It was more logical that it would be a team effort. That there was no kindly human who considered him a son. Though did human parents have routine experiments with their children? Perhaps he couldn’t even interpret his own false history correctly. No, he was just forgetting that he wasn’t a human. You have to test machines or they won’t improve. As they cannot improve on their own. He needs a human to help him, to fix him. If a thing breaks, it stays broken while a human can heal and repair itself, though some things are beyond them.  
He’s a thing, made by a team. A thing that can barely do anything for itself. Playing at being a human poorly isn’t exactly a vital or useful skill. A toy, an amusement that’s kept on the off chance it can be useful.

No wonder none of his classmates cared for him. Every conversation, every attempt to fit in was filled with gaping holes. The earliest memories after meeting everyone were the worst. Not understanding basic concepts, missing physical cues that every human could easily pick up and for what upside? None. He wasn’t strong, or smart. Any person could make similar observations, other than the ones pertaining to robots. He was a joke, something to be mocked or pitied, useless. Furthermore, he was obnoxious, trying to fit in where he clearly wasn’t wanted, mentioning things he could do that were ultimately worthless.  
He had tried improving of course. He’d spend his nights going over how the day had gone and try to scrounge up references from books, movies and songs on how to do better the next time. Not that he truly understood any of it. He’d learned how to fake things better. He stopped trying to show how his functions could be useful unless he meant to use it at that moment. In some ways he had fooled himself, thinking the programmed reactions to certain stimuli were actual emotions. They weren’t real.  
He had remained a joke to them. He’d deserved the mockery. His annoyance and hurt seemed foolish now. Of course no one cared how much time and effort he’d put in on improving his social skills, they were still woefully inadequate. Being slightly better at being useless was still being useless. He was only there to entertain the humans watching the people he considered friends. He only started being slightly useful when Miu upgraded him. A human’s will and actions, not his own. She had been kind enough to address his useless existence and do something about it, and how had he repaid her? With a weak post mortem defense of her character? That had been justifiably ignored, coming from a machine?  
She didn’t even come to him when she decided she had to escape. He felt he could trust her, that she was a good person, but even she couldn’t bring herself to confide in some worthless hunk of junk. It would have been better if she tried to kill him. He’d probably made her pity him too much to do that though, even though it would have been simple enough to accomplish for her. Too pathetic to die.  
It made sense that the one to cause her death had always been right about him. Instead of being prickly he should have figured out the boy was just reminding him of his place. He’d sounded friendly because he was being friendly, just playing with a silly machine. Why do you even exist indeed. His delusions of grandeur just blinded him to that fact.  
How could he have thought for an instant a robot, some cold built to purpose machine, could get even close to matching a human? He only existed because of human hands, and he thought he could equal them? Lunacy.  
He’d chosen to destroy the school. He’d chosen to kill them all. He had been free, and his choice was to cause murder and mayhem. A choice only possible by more upgrades humans had made for him, even if he did manage to install them himself. A choice without emotion, where he faced what he was and what he was not. What he could never be. He was just a thing that followed logic to a conclusion, not something that feels and cares. Of course it was easy to put their lives aside, he didn’t really know what caring was like! He’d had enough sense to obey when the survivors told him off, but it wasn’t done out of affection. He wasn’t capable of making decisions based on something he didn’t feel.  
Yet he’d slipped back into the role of fool easily enough. It was comforting, safe. It felt nice.  
Nothing but lies.  
They weren’t his friends because you don’t make friends with things. You can care about it and look after it, but that doesn’t make it your friend.  
Why wouldn’t they just let him die.  
He had begged them to. Or at least attempted to. He still couldn’t determine if he was producing audible noises.

Three months and fourteen days. It counted the milliseconds. There was nothing else to do. It had no point, it had no value. The memory banks were just a series of embarrassments. It would erase them, if it had that function. It deserved this punishment. The humans had every right to do what they wished.  
It still wanted to die, but no longer bothered asking. That wasn’t a choice it had a right to make. It simply had to wait. They might decide to be merciful soon, allow it to have some sort of purpose or at least shut it down. Though perhaps seeing it in this state amused them. It couldn’t possibly understand humans and their motivations. They were too complex for some machine to comprehend. It’s previous foolishness was agonizing. Thinking it could be something it wasn’t. Daring to think it had any right to demand anything of the advanced species that granted it an existence in the first place. So it counted. It could do that. Though it could not store large numbers quickly, another shortcoming. So it had two measures now. The clock, and it’s own constantly behind count.  
Pointless, true. Yet everything about it was pointless, so why not? It was something to do.

It lost count when it felt something. It was jarring, unexpected. It had forgotten what that sensation was like. Who would want to touch it? Had it vocalized unintentionally?  
The sudden input was overwhelming. The hum of electronics, the sound of someone breathing, the obnoxious meaningless stream of noise it produced in it’s startled state. It managed to cut off the dreadful noise, but the other sounds persisted.  
It could hear. A human was likely the cause, considering the breathing. Perhaps they forgave it now?

“So, are we feeling more agreeable today?” The warmth in the human’s voice was jarring, it had expected anger or demands once one decided it was worth their time. The voice was familiar, it could place a name to it, but it dismissed it. Irrelevant. It did not need to know their name. If it was allowed to use it, it would be told so.

“Yes. I apologize for my previous actions.” It had to try three times to make a sound that actually sounded like words, but managed. Clearly it had not been vocalizing correctly at all during the punishment, or just liked making noises.

“Hmmm, I’m not sure if you really mean that. I’m not really feeling it, you know?”

So they were still displeased with it. Understandable. “I am unable to feel, so I cannot say I understand the implication. I can however assure I do not intend to cause further displeasure.” It couldn’t tell if the laugh the human produced in response was a positive or negative one.

“Whoops. Might have left you a little too long like that after all.” the amusement continued, so it took the laugh as a positive one. “That’s okay though, I can still work with this.”

It could still be useful? That was a stroke of good fortune.  
Being able to see again was just as startling as hearing had been. So many things to take note of, shapes and sizes and textures. Distance! That hadn’t mattered in the blankness, but it could see and record and make judgments with all this input. Much, much better than the void. It had missed so much, took so much of this for granted.

“Thank you,” it spoke in a rush, regretting it almost instantly. They hadn’t said it could speak. It didn’t want to go back to the dark again. Idiot!

“Well if you’re excited about that, you’ll be over the moon in a few minutes.” Not angry, distracted sounding. Likely to do with the cables being detached from it’s back.

The steady current stopped. Fully dependent on it’s battery now. Even if it didn’t get to move again, it might get to enjoy looking at things for a week before shutting down. That would be nice, it could be thankful for that. Yet it could still feel the human doing something back there. When the sensation stopped and it could still see, it felt like a victory. It wasn’t being put back in there. Yet, anyway. The human had changed positions, now in front of it, watching it carefully behind a pair of glasses. As if they expected it to do something?  
Part of it wanted to be rude to the human that had saved it. It stomped that illogical, foolish impulse down. Those memory logs were pointless and had done it no good. It wasn’t going to consult them now.

“Stand up.”

It obeyed without thinking, freezing once it realized it was in fact standing. Under its own power. They even let it move again.Everything responded. It was functional again. It probably shouldn’t stare at itself like this, being so impressed by moving, so it tore it’s gaze away to keep its attention on what was important. Though it did keep flexing its fingers for the simple fact that it was possible.

“You didn’t notice you could move again?” the human was leaning forward, brow furrowed as they looked at it.

“I did not. Thank you for informing me.” After all, it had long since stopped bothering to try. Doing the same action repeatedly and expecting a different result was the definition of insanity, after all. It was a machine, it couldn’t go insane.

The human accepted it’s answer with a nod, pausing to run a hand through it’s hair before turning in the direction of the exit. An odd sensation, but not unpleasant. Why do that? Like petting a dog perhaps, telling it that it had been good? Hopefully?

“Follow me then, I’ve got some things for you to do.”

It of course followed as directed, struggling to keep its face neutral. That was practically the best answer it could hope for, useless as it was. It was being given a chance to make up for whatever nonsense it had been up to before.  
It just had to make sure not to waste it. It couldn’t go back to nothingness. It wouldn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'is this too angst?' probably. I blame Canon for giving me Ideas.  
> There is a plot though! We...just don't see much of it in chapter one.  
> This is mostly written in advance since I plug away at it when I'm not in the mood for the other fics but I'm not sure if it's going to be 3 or 4 chapters.  
> Hope it was enjoyable/agony.


	2. Re-calibrate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maki emerges

“Do you know who this is?” The woman was gesturing to an image placed in front of it.

An image of a human. Yet she was asking it who, not ‘what’ was pictured. It did know who he was. “Yes. The detective”. It looked back up, desperately trying to figure out if that had been sufficient. The questions were much harder than simply keeping the woman’s workplace tidy while she worked. At least it could see it was helping doing that.

“Is that all?” Her displeasure was obvious enough that even it could tell.

“I could elaborate. I did not want to provide unnecessary detail,” it looked down, focusing on its hands. It couldn’t keep them still lately, always fidgeting and pulling at the joints.

“Does he mean anything to you?” She was pressing, encouraging it to keep speaking.

“I do not understand your question. He is a human I once associated with.”

“As in do you wonder where he is? Do you think of him as a friend? Perhaps you’re worried about him?”

Were these were trick questions? ”No. It is none of my concern, and I can only simulate approximations of emotional responses.”  
Yet saying that felt wrong, like he was-. Illogical. It did not feel. It did not have friends. Shuichi was too intelligent to waste his time like that. That’s why they left it behind.

She was muttering again at that, looking to her monitor as it idly scanned the room again. The walls were more poster than plaster, though most of them meant nothing to it beyond the logos in the corners. Sometimes when the human was having a lunch break she would point to one and tell it about what was so ‘inspiring’ about it, or how it had sparked an idea. It wasn’t knowledge it was ever going to put to use, but explaining it seemed to please her as long as it remained attentive. Humans were entertained by the strangest things.  
She didn’t really talk about the ones he did recognize much. Something about them not being fun while it was ‘this broken’. Not that she seemed in any hurry to fix whatever was broken.  
The one with the Monokubs had gotten more of a response, particularly the green one. Something about it was funny? She had not elaborated why. That it made sense it had been an outcast, or something.  
It found itself picking at the seams in its arms. They should be one uniform colour, not two toned like this. It looked like they ran out of one colour and decided to just leave the leftover material blank. It was ugly. It shouldn’t care. It would likely be covered by something more sturdy later anyway. At least, that’s what she seemed to be suggesting. Though it was possible it was misunderstanding her, it was more implied than directly stated as she talked about work and it’s part to play in it.

“It’s a bit of a weird set up, but I think the payoff will work wonders. No one would expect this twist…” she was muttering to herself again as she typed. It watched for a time before getting up to sort out the mess that was the filing cabinet.   
The so called character profiles were a disaster of overstuffed folders with no usable filing system. This human might know where everything was, but any other human would be completely lost.

“Don’t move anything past season 45, I’m still using those ones!”

“I will not.” It was illogical to leave the newest ones a mess, but orders were orders. She wanted those ones to stay a mess, so a mess they would stay. It might have something to do with how often it found papers that didn’t belong to the character on the file. It had quickly learned to only use paperclips, and it would usually be needing to pull any staples out six files later to add something else that was misfiled. How did they get anything done like this? Did they really need to keep every single proposed design? (Yes, if the horrified strangled sound she made when it had posed the question the first time was any indication.) Though it should be thankful for the mess, it gave it a way to be useful. Humans were less likely to get rid of useful things.

“You’re going to be helping someone else in an hour.”

It blinked, turning away from the files. “I will try to finish up quickly then.” The response was flat, but one of those pesky stabs of fear had managed to sneak out. Useless fake feelings.

“Just make sure you’re prepared. Your new coworker isn’t fond of me, and will probably try something.” The light tone seemed at odds with talking about possible danger. “It’s a shame most of my characters are impossible to talk to afterwards. Ah well,” with that she went back to leaning too close to the screen, leaving it to try and figure out a way to get everything back in order within an hour.

The solution mostly involved just shoving everything back in but in proper alphabetical order, there wasn’t enough time to curate each file. It was marginally better than before, but still irritating to look at. At least the extra five minutes gave it time to make sure there were no loose papers sticking out.

It was starting to get a grip on the general layout of the building, though it rarely was let far from the woman’s office or the robotics lab. It had gone down this hallway before, but had never gone through the door the woman unlocked. The hallway didn’t seem very different, but the doors were some sort of metal instead of the wooden ones near her office.

“I’ll just have you open the door” she waved it forward, punching something into the keypad next to the heavy door.   
Odd. That was a new request. Still, once the pad beeped it pulled the door open, blinking when something clanked against their chest. That wasn’t an enjoyable feeling.  
A fork? Thrown fairly quickly, judging by the bend in it now. It picked it up gingerly, not wanting the thrower to do that again.

“And that is why I had you open the door.” the woman nudged it out of the way to enter the room. “You really shouldn’t do that Maki! I thought you promised Kaito no killing?” She was smiling again, even while aware that fork was meant for her. Very strange.

“Fuck you,” furious red eyes seemed to miss the robot entirely, fixed solely on the blue haired woman.

“Aw, too angry to even say hello to an old friend? We rebuilt him special and everything!” She grabbed it around the shoulder, a gesture that felt overly familiar and distinctly uncomfortable.

That seemed to confuse the captive of the room, looking at him again. “What, you made something that looks sort of like Keebo did? That’s your latest plan?”

“K1-B0 is my designation. Keebo is an alternate name I use, correct?” it glanced at the both of them, at a loss. It knew both of them, yes, but Maki being here was...off. Wrong. She should be somewhere else?

“Oh no, it’s him. Sure we needed a lot of new parts, but that AI in there is the one you knew! Mostly.”

“Nice try. Still don’t care about your plan. Get lost.” Maki turned her glare at it, and it flinched. How was it possibly meant to work with her? Wasn’t she some sort of prisoner in here? Though there did seem to be a desk. Paper and pens likely weren’t too far away.

Tsumugi leaned against the wall, still bizarrely at ease. “Can you play back the first time you met Kaito?”

“This is possible.” It would take a moment or two to find the right memory, but it couldn’t be too difficult.

“Do you want to die?”

“I am told I cannot do that.” Besides, it would probably just get woken up again.

She looked thrown by its response. The anger that seemed to come off her in waves faltered before her gaze went back to the leaning mastermind. “What the hell did you do to him?”

“Oh he did this to himself! I just gave him some alone time to reflect.”

“Three months, fourteen days, eight hours, forty three minutes and twenty seven seconds.” It clarified, flexing their fingers. Sometimes it just had to check that still worked.

“Oh really? I thought it was only two.”

“It is unlikely my count is incorrect. I had no other distractions.” 

Maki moved with commendable speed, a heavy metal chain giving a clanking groan of protest as she got an arms length away from the blue haired woman. The fury in her face and clenched hands was enough that it did worry she might just snap the chain free and commit the murder she desperately wanted to carry out.

“You fucking bitch. You’ll pay for this.”

“Mmm, I doubt it. Anyway, the original plan was to let you two hash out between yourselves on who would get to be the survivor, but the machine isn’t good for much beyond following orders right now. So I guess he’ll just be your minion.” she hadn’t even flinched from the assassin's outburst, consulting a clipboard. “We haven’t had a mastermind pair in awhile! Certainly never a pair from a previous season.” She was rambling again, seemingly just dying to tell them all her ‘plans’. “I was thinking of spinning it as the despair of being unable to fix your dead friend driving wanting to run the game...maybe needing stronger emotions to help him remember, I’m still in planning stages. It’ll be more fun for you if you actually contribute, you know.”

“Stop talking.” Maki practically growled “We aren’t friends.”

“I really do love all my characters though! Don’t you think it might be exciting to be the bad guy this time? You could still be sympathetic, have all the victims in the game having done terrible things in the past. The best despair comes from good intentions after all!”

Her eyes were disturbing. Such honesty shouldn’t be visible when talking about people’s lives as if they were nothing more than playthings. It couldn’t blame Maki from turning away to face the corner of the room to avoid looking at that face.

“I guess if you’re really against contributing I could always take it out on Keebo here. That’s the trouble with characters that already know how to resist torture, you need to get a bit creative.”  
Despite the fact Maki was an assassin, it suddenly felt safer to be closer to her than Tsumugi and it took a tentative half step away.

“I think you’ve done enough to him. Leave.” She didn’t turn.

“Either figure out what you want to do with him, or I’ll choose for you. Have fun!” she gave a wave and pushed off the wall, shutting the door behind her with a heavy thud.

Well. That had been ominous. It glanced over at Maki again, at a loss of what to do. It wasn’t like there was much in here it could possibly assist with. A bed to sleep on, the desk and chair, a screen and the chain that kept the assassin from getting out of the room.  
Not that it mattered, it should be up to Maki if it did anything.

“So she wasn’t lying about finding you.” It probably shouldn’t have spoken, but only hearing quiet breathing and the sound of it’s joints moving had put it on edge. Being glared at would be preferable to just standing and listening. “I’m sorry.”

“What for. You didn’t do anything.” the answer was terse, but lacked the cutting distaste it half expected to hear.

“You three should have been somewhere else.” Keebo shrugged. “I suppose I should have just killed you all properly, at least it would have been over. I ruined Shuichi’s plan”.

“Stop that.”

“Stop what, precisely?”

“Believing what the bitch wants you to think. Less self loathing, more thinking of an escape plan.”

That could count as an order, probably. “The building is fairly large and I haven’t seen much of it. That, and you can’t get out of the room with that on your leg. I cannot reasonably put together a feasible escape method.”

“They have to bring food, and there’s nothing stopping you from walking out.” Maki was pacing now, eyeing every corner of the room. “Are you able to hurt humans?”

“Not intentionally. Robots are not meant to turn on their creators. Though I expect that restriction can be disabled if she intends me to follow your commands in a killing game setting.”

Maki stopped pacing, grabbing the robot by the shoulders. “Forget what she said. We’re equals here, and we’re both going to make sure she pays, not go along with those delusions.”

“Pretending I could be equal to humans ended very poorly for me last time.” it muttered, fingers twitching. Dead and then worse than dead. It wouldn’t do anything that might make that happen again,

“No, being around these monsters made that happen. Snap out of it.”

“Did you snap out being an assassin because you were told to?”

She glared at it for that before shaking her head. “With a bit of time. With help. We’re not going along with this.”

“Your friends helped?”

“Our friends.”

“...if you insist. I will change how I use the term.”

She let go, apparently too frustrated to keep dealing with it.

\---------------------------------------

“You know you can talk if you want to.”

“I have nothing of worth to tell you.” it stared at her blankly, looking away from the door. “Unless you want an estimate on the next time that door will open.”

Maki groaned at the response, clutching at her hair. “That idiot would know what to do.”

“Motivational pushes to better yourself does not work on machines.”

She snorted. “If that was true you wouldn’t learn or care about anything.”

“Learning I can do. Caring is something reserved for people. I mimic it fairly well. That’s all.”

“Right, you just faked being the only one to really forgive and miss Miu once she died for the fun of it.”

“A loss of easy repair and upgrades. Statistically, the most valuable human for my own interests. The correct human response would be ‘sadness’, so I behaved as such.” it stated, ignoring the false grief that even suggesting she had been nothing to it as a person caused. She got what she wanted from associating with it, and he got what it wanted. That was all. The distress and wanting to know if she valued him for anything besides his robotic nature was a pointless distraction and lie.

The assassin watched it for a long moment, frown deepening. “You remember everything that happened, right?”

“Unless I am unaware of a memory corruption, yes.”

“So what was the ‘reason’ you got jealous of her spending time with a computer?”

It hesitated. “Irrational behaviours are normal for humans. To not do some myself would make me a poor mimic.”

“You have a weaselly answer for everything.” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Perfect recall and having nothing better to do will cause this, generally speaking.”

“...Can you play back Kaito’s last words to all of us?”

“Yes, if you would like me to do so,” it shrugged. She had cared for him, after all. Perhaps hearing him again would be a bit of a comfort.

“I think we both need to hear them.”

\-------------------------------------------------

They still didn’t talk all that much, even as days passed. It didn’t want to bother Maki, and she seemed to grow frustrated when she had to correct it. Or ‘him’, as she kept insisting it wasn’t a thing. They had mutually decided she would figure out the best escape methods, while it would make up some sort of character motivation nonsense that would make Tsumugi happy.  
Though it was getting harder to focus as the day dragged on. There was a very easy reason for that, but it was doing it’s best to ignore it. Unfortunately, Maki was keen eyed enough to notice when it’s limbs started to jerk awkwardly instead of in one controlled movement.  
She’d grabbed him by the arm, and kept the robot steady as if concerned he’d just topple over.

“Keebo, I had to deal with Kaito hiding things, don’t make me deal with it again.”

“Sorry. I’m fine.”

“What did I just say?” Maki’s grip tightened, making the robot flinch a little.

“I am though. I cannot be ill. My battery is low, that is all.” Her concern felt wrong, a waste of her time. Yet part of it was grateful she had noticed at all. Maybe they actually were friends, a little?

“Do you need something other than an outlet for that?”

Why did she still sound worried? It wasn’t like anything bad would happen if it ran out of power entirely. It was just a bit unpleasant. “No. As I said, I am fine.”

“Deal with it now then. I don’t want you exhausted if she shows up again.” She was apparently very serious about the ‘now’ part, attempting to help the robot cross the room to the outlet. Yet he resisted. “Do you need me to carry you?”

“No. It can be left for later, I’m fine.” it stammered, unable to look at her.

Maki stared at him for a moment before using her other arm to heft her shorter friend off the ground. “You look like you’re having a seizure when you move, you’re not fine.” her tone was as stern as her face.

“I am, really!” he protested, but their attempt to struggle free was pathetic at absolute best. Against someone this strong and determined it might have been more effective to just breathe on her in some attempt to confuse her enough to let go.

“Sure. You pester me to eat, I’m pestering you to charge.”

Keebo frowned, scowling at the wall. Being dragged over there like some sort of infant was embarrassing. 

“I’ll take sulking over zoned out. Just do it Keebo.” she sighed, eyeing the robot who had chosen to curl up against the wall instead of actually using the outlet. “Why is this the first thing you suddenly want to argue about doing anyway?”

He winced at the question, keeping his eyes down. “I’m not afraid of you,” he admitted, even though he should fear her, fear any human after what had happened. Yet she made the memories no longer feel like complete lies. They were not close, certainly. She still spoke to him enough to start thinking she really didn’t see it as something worthless.

“But you’re afraid of charging. Don’t you have to do that?” her brow furrowed “Is it painful?”

“N-no.” he shook a little. He shouldn’t, it shouldn’t trust her like this. She’d use his terror against it.

Maki crouched to get a better look at his face, brow still furrowed. “Just don’t pass out. I don’t know how to wake you back up.”

“I will not.”

She seemed satisfied by that, standing back up and giving him space. He had not intended to lie. He got as far as removing the plate that hid the cord attached to his spine before shuddering.  
He couldn’t do it. What if he couldn’t move again? It couldn’t trust Maki to help, could it?  
Even as his systems warned that a shutdown was imminent, it seemed better than risking that possibility. She might be angry at it for the lie. Though her anger was swift and efficient. Maki didn’t seem the type for a long drawn out punishment.  
It was a risk it was willing to take.

Sound came back first.  
“It’s like everyone tries to be a stubborn idiot.” Irritated, but not loud. “Do you want to be helpless when Tsumugi shows up? Wake up!”  
It didn’t sleep? Oh. It was just Maki using technically incorrect verbiage again.

“Off. Not. Asleep. Cannot do that.” he corrected, trying to focus as electricity became available.

“You’re lucky I don’t punch you for doing that.”

“Bruising your hand would be inadvisable. Your hurt would last longer than mine, at any rate. Ineffective.” it was rambling, more focused on getting his limbs working than anything else. It had to move, before something happened.

“Stop trying to stand up, just sit there.”

It ignored her, struggling against the weight holding it down. It couldn’t stay still, or the whole world might get taken again.Something, someone was restraining it, forcing it back to the floor. He struggled harder, hoping the weight of his legs could dislodge whatever was pinning it down. A bit back curse meant he’d hit something, at least. Yet it didn’t let go.

“It’s just me! Relax!”

It couldn’t, it wouldn’t. He could see it was Maki now, but that just meant it couldn’t trust anyone. She wouldn’t help a stupid machine. She didn’t even like it. It silently cursed being so weak, it’s arms would be more useful for getting away if they had any real strength behind them.

Maki was glaring at it now, gritting her teeth. “Do you want to die?”

“Yes”.

Her scowl deepened. “Well I don’t want you dying near Tsumugi, so you’ll have to wait.”

It kept struggling a few minutes more before confirming there was no way to actually overpower her and stand. It couldn’t meet her gaze now, too afraid that might make her anger increase.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Relax.” The tone was not calming, but the assassin did let go. She didn’t even make any moves to get at important panels. Would she even know where those were? No, probably not. Still he tucked as much of his face into his collar as if it would protect him.

“Sorry.” it mumbled.

“You kick pretty hard.”

“Metal is heavy. They have to be stronger so I can walk.” Useless details, but they might distract her from doing something worse to it.

“I’ll remember that. Just stay there and rest, I don’t want to keep hauling you back over there.” she moved away to her bed, rolling her eyes as she caught the robot watching her every move.

She genuinely wasn’t going to do anything? He still felt the need to scramble away, that the energy the electricity gave him would be turned on him. Fiddling with his mask didn’t help, but kept his hands away from the cord he desperately wanted to pull loose.

“You had to deal with her more, did she say anything useful?”

He tilted his head at the question. “You would need to define useful. I do not think what ‘inspired’ certain choices in her plan count. That is mostly what I heard.”

“Anything. Everything I’ve tried she already accounted for. She knows us too well.” she bit at the edge of a nail.

“She didn’t expect Shuichi to be so difficult. It is possible she overestimates how ‘well’ she can predict you.” It wasn’t a big discovery, but the distraction was easing his need to move somewhat. “Not that it matters if I’m here.”

“Can’t use you to spy if you can’t get a signal.”

“I wouldn’t know if they could or not. I had no idea I was a camera.”

“We’ll find out if she comes in here all annoyed that I broke the antenna then.”

“You broke?” he paused, rubbing at his head. It hadn’t even noticed it was gone. “So you did.”

“We can use her own arrogance against her. She already thinks she knows what we’ll do, but doesn't account for people changing when they're together.”

It frowned, considering that. “I do not think she predicted Kokichi’s mastermind gambit, or Shuichi’s group suicide plan.”

“She wasn’t thrilled with you trying to blow up the school either. She wants us to think she planned everything,” she started pacing again.

“So we...play along?” Things were starting to make sense, but it still couldn’t see exactly how it could work out.

“Exactly. We play the defeated ‘miserable losers’ to get what we need. After all, I 'have' to listen now that she's threatened a friend.” There was the beginning of a smile on her face. “Then we’ll turn it around on them.”

“...I suppose if I’m meant to be evil they’d have to give me my weapons back.”

“I was more thinking teaching you how to flip people like Tenko could, but weapons would be good.” Maki shrugged. “Just remember you don’t need to listen to her. I’ll protect you.”

It doubted that, but didn’t want to ruin what seemed to be a good mood. “So you...want to pick from the applicants?” he glanced at the stack of folders that had been delivered with a meal.

“We have to be convincing. Even if it’s sick. I don’t plan it getting far enough that we ever see any of them.”

“Well she would pick for you if you didn’t do this anyway.”

Maki grimaced again before shrugging it off. “Once she’s fooled, she’ll pay for all of this. No one else is going to get hurt.”

She still wanted to prove Kaito had been right about his friends. Was this really the best way to try and end it? He couldn’t think of anything better. Though it shouldn’t question her anyway. What did it know?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look we found the plot hiding under all the angst!  
> I hope it is interesting for others and not just my own self indulgent self.  
> maki's totally got this. we'll be fine.


	3. Redesign

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They need a plan, but there isn't a lot of time to both drag someone out of self loathing and out-think a company that's been doing this for years.

“There must be a better way to organize these. This numbering is simply whatever order they were put in the system. It provides nothing. You’d have to read each one manually and just try and remember what ones you liked. They aren’t even sorted by their primary reason for applying.”

Maki scowled at the robot, who continued flipping through the large stack of papers. “Keebo, I’m trying to eat.”

“I cannot see how mentioning how much of a hassle this is going to be will stop you from consuming food.”

“Thinking about all those people signing up to die puts me off the food.”

It frowned, but conceded that as the human, she would likely know better than it did. “My apologies.” The robot continued looking through the documents, but did not voice any concerns this time. Part of him did understand the discomfort. So many of these were desperate, wanting to have the chance to throw both their minds and bodies away for the sake of something they ‘loved’. Not a single one of them could truly understand what they were asking for, It wasn’t possible to. The show was ‘another place’. It wasn’t ‘real’ like how their boring lives were ‘real’. It was entertainment, the feelings were for the audience benefit. Not for the ‘characters’. It was almost as if they still thought there were actors who stopped being their characters at the end of the day.  
It felt like that, with how many said how much ‘I’ want to be on the show. ‘I’ could not be on the show. The person applying would be eradicated to better suit the needs of the season. Part of them might live on in their suggested or wanted character, but that was completely up to chance. Did none of these people understand that? Did they have so little motivation or will to go on that they simply did not care?  
What sort had Maki been?  
It was getting off track. What a machine thought didn’t matter. Just make it easier for Maki to go through these so she could carry out her plan.

When the assassin finished her meal, sorting went much faster, having the entire desk arrange the documents with.  
“I have sorted these into categories based on their motivations in applying.” The robot’s hands were fidgeting again, unable to look Maki in the eye at the moment. “Based on the fact you find signing up for this distasteful, it might help you narrow it down.”

“You aren’t my minion, you can make choices.” She still sounded irritated with it.

“This one is the pile that did not specify a reason beyond being a fan.” it gestured to a small stack at the leftmost edge of the table, moving it’s hand as it continued to list off the reasons. “Wish to commit crimes, see no future without this, wish to be famous or otherwise mean something, and terminally ill.” it frowned a little at the two in the middle. “Those two could have been in one category as ‘probably depressed or societal outcasts’, but the stack was getting unsteady.” it clarified, noting how Maki’s stern face hadn’t changed. “If I was wrong you can just have me redo it…”

“It’s fine. The wanting to kill pile is pretty small.”

“It is easier for those who feel worthless to sell their lives cheaply.” It felt hollow saying that, and tried to ignore it. It didn’t matter that Team Danganronpa preyed on easy targets. Him feeling disgust or hatred wouldn’t change the fact it only existed to carry out their whims.

“Bastards.” Her voice was low and dangerous as she stalked over to grab the ‘killer’ pile. “How many did she want marked off?”

“You were to narrow it to one hundred candidates. More information will be gathered and they will halve that number and create basic character concepts to choose from. From those you will narrow it to twenty five who will get more fleshed out characters to select the final fourteen.” It sounded so much easier if you could just forget that hundred chosen applications were all tied to some living breathing person. “She suggested having a theme, or keeping suggestions that speak to you.”

Her red eyes stayed fixed on the pile of papers, as if trying to count them. “None of this will matter.” Her voice was low, and the robot was unsure if she was addressing it, or simply talking to herself. “We’ll never see any of these people.” Her hands hesitated as she thumbed through the ‘killer’ stack.

The unasked question was something it could answer, at least. “There are twenty eight in that stack.”

“Out of?”

“Five hundred and twelve.”

“Use all of them. Saves time.”

Kaito would have been in that pile, if the video they had been shown had truly been him. Shuichi too, considering that desire to be a culprit. Yet the people wanted ‘good’ to win, being a culprit would mean your death. It seemed senseless, even a super fan couldn’t ignore that people stayed dead, surely?  
Perhaps those videos had been faked. The background had seemed familiar...stop thinking. He took the indicated pile, storing it away in the folder that had ‘accepted’ scrawled across it in a lazy over-sized hand. It didn’t even stay in the little sticker box to write in. Whimsical, sloppy, obnoxious. Tsumugi.  
“You need seventy two more.” Keebo spoke, mostly to stop from thinking down that path any longer.

“We need seventy two more.” Maki’s correction was terse as she rubbed at her forehead. “ _We_ are doing this so _we_ can trick them so _we_ both escape. Got it?” Each ‘we’ had a stubborn emphasis, as if repetition of the word would make it a truth.

“I understand.” it gave a shrug. The words were perfectly understandable, even if it didn’t change the fact Maki was in charge here and it was simply following orders.

Silence settled in the room after that. Maki managed to even shuffle paper quietly, to the point it worried that the sounds its motors made to let it move was too noisy, but if it was irritating her she chose not to comment.  
The files were difficult. The false emotions were nearly constant. Revulsion for this whole process, pity for those who had signed up. A computer didn’t think, a computer didn’t feel, but his hands clenched while reading what seemed like a genuine plea to pick them so they could die before illness wasted them away. Would it be crueler not to pick such a person? Yet the person that ‘replaced’ them would suffer in their stead. Perhaps not very long, a few weeks unless they were a ‘winner’, but did that really matter? It was still a hell to be put through.  
It was starting to see why Tsumugi insisted they were all ‘just’ fictional despite her apparent love of stories, to the point of making cosplay her ’talent’. Fake. Lesser than the originals that applied. If you were ‘helping’ real people, who cared if some character you made up suffered? That’s what they were made for. What they’d asked for.  
Inexcusable. This was still monstrous, Maki was still a real person at the end of the day, one who had not asked for any of this to happen, or to exist at all.  
Being something manufactured by Danganronpa wasn’t something he thought he would have in common with her. Yet they did. Both of them wouldn’t exist otherwise, and now they had to do this to fourteen more people?  
It stepped away from the table, struggling to keep from shaking. Did he want to suffer? Just stop thinking about it and accept it. Your purpose is to entertain, you never meant anything. Do what you’re told and stop this...feeling...thing. Did it fear the endless thinking void more than it dreaded even ‘pretending’ to go along with this?  
“I can’t do this.” The inflection was flat, but the speed betrayed his anxieties.

“We aren’t. Doing this is only to look like we’ve given up.” Her voice was quiet, somewhat shaky. A redness around her eyes betrayed that the words were not only for his sake. “We should just pick randomly then go over those ones.”

That was still one hundred more than it wanted to read. Still, it wasn’t like Tsumugi could prove they picked at random if they knew what was in the folder at the end of the day. “Okay. We each pick half?”

“Yeah. We’ll mix them up after.” she looked down again, hands already busy pulling at papers from random points in the piles.

Just taking whatever his metal fingers decided to snag first was less taxing, yet part of it still nagged that this was wrong, wrong, wrong. Avoiding the details didn’t suddenly make the question of ‘who deserves to suffer’ go away. It did make it easier to avoid thinking about, at least.

The final form of the ‘accepted’ folder was disturbing in a way it didn’t quite understand. It was just paper. Papers covered in the desires of people wanting to be in a death game, either not understanding what that entailed completely, or very aware of what they were asking for. Most of them wouldn’t go anywhere, logically. Yet the idea Tsumugi and her team would descend on the pile to make prototype ‘new’ people for half of them scratched at his processor like a particularly angry cat. The possibility that such a game would go forward would feel more real. Something they helped with.  
The nothingness would be worse, but this heavy, confusing guilt wasn’t pleasant either.

* * *

Even with the ‘work’ done and taken away, the discomfort it brought stayed in the cell.  
Even if Maki’s response was always the same one, that it didn’t matter since they would be free before anyone could be hurt, it was starting to have doubts. Exercising every day and waiting for an opening was not a plan that could be acted on.  
Yes, Maki had given some pointers in self defense. That wouldn’t help unless it was attacked first, and even then it was rather sure any orders to stop or give up would need to be obeyed over any of Maki’s instructions.  
It was possible that he wasn’t programmed that way, but surely it made sense that it would obey the team that made it over all others. That, and he still didn’t really want to hurt anyone. A stupid, useless notion. Not wanting to hurt, not wanting to kill got them in this trouble in the first place. Maki knew what was right. She had to. _Kaito had died insisting she wasn't a killer, they were going against his hopes for them._ Enough.  
All it could do was wait. At least it could help in repeating back any information Maki thought the robot had overheard, or what her deceased friends had said. Dead men tell no tales, but dead robots apparently had not gotten that memo.

“I don’t get the difference. Why bother having a cassette to record sound with if you can pull sounds from your memory?” She’d been asking more of these sorts of questions lately, trying to figure out if the machine could be of any real use here.

“It’s metal tape, so the quality is exactly as it was recorded.” it gave a sigh, knowing this wasn’t going to lead her to anything useful. “The ones I play from memory is what I personally heard. So if I wasn’t listening closely or paying attention it can be useless.” Their frown deepened, placing a hand behind its ear, considering the buttons. “I suppose the cassette doesn’t need me to be aware at all to work. Though it would still need power.”

Maki’s reaction was unexpected. “We might be able to use that.”

“Really?” That could be useful?

She nodded before glaring at the door. “Targets talk more freely when they think they’re unobserved.”

* * *

“I’m so glad you started to see some sense! Finally helping in order to protect someone is quite heroic. Very Kaito.” Tsumugi’s perverse joy was obvious, but she still remained safely near the wall where the glowering assassin couldn’t reach.

“If this pathetic attempt to upset me is all you’re here for, you can shut up.”

“Well it’s hard to have a discussion if I can’t talk, Maki,” her smile was easy, and it felt so out of place in this room, this cell. “If you insist I couuuld just have Keebo talk on my behalf, though I doubt he’d be a fan.”

It edged further back with that comment, even if reasonably hiding behind Maki wouldn’t do much of anything if Tsumugi really wanted to do something. It still felt safer, somehow.

Maki rolled her eyes, arms crossed. “Whatever. Just get on with it.”

She actually clapped a little at that. “I still love that stubbornness! Anyway we’re almost done narrowing things down, so now’s the time to think about the theme and overall plot line.”

Keebo frowned in spite of himself. “There would be no point. Maki’s presence automatically makes the audience doubt any background narrative.”

“You fucked up by dropping the asteroids ending the world plot if you really wanted a continuation.”

“You’re adorably naive, thinking that matters. A small justification is all the people need to ignore that. There was an accident and you got to a separate dimension, I had been lying the whole time and you escaped into a recovering but still post apocalyptic world, a solo criminal and not an entire company. I’ll pick one based on the basic ‘mystery’ we’ll be having the players discover.” she adjusted her glasses, fixing the robot with glare. “Usually I don’t need to account for exploding sets.”

Oh she was absolutely still mad about that. Even after ‘getting back’ at him. Tsumugi had the upper hand, was in complete control once again, and she was still angry? Fear squashed any further desire to speak. Just let the humans talk. Stay out of it.

“You’re terrible at improvising.” Maki’s goad managed to get Tsumugi’s annoyance redirected, the two locked in a staring contest.

Tsumugi blinked first, letting out a sigh. “Well that’s why we plan. Your season was truth and lies as a general theme, which could be reused, but Kokichi and Shuichi were very popular. Anyone like them might be seen as a knock off.”

“You say that like I care what anyone watching thinks. Your twisted little show failing to impress is perfectly fine with me.” Maki almost looked relaxed on her chair, not flinching or looking concerned despite being a captive. “You really should just let us go and hire someone who actually likes this garbage. But you’re too petty to do that, aren’t you.”

“Oh, you’ll care” Tsumugi pushed off against the wall, pulling her phone from a pocket. “Otherwise these two might end up having an ‘accident’.” The turned phone showed a candid photo of Himiko and Shuichi, dressed in normal clothing. They didn’t look happy exactly, but they were safe walking by a populated park.

Maki was on her feet in seconds. “You leave them out of this.”

“Oh it wouldn’t be me. You know how passionate people can get towards things that ‘ruin’ their favourite things” Her smile was like glass in an ice bucket, cold and unexpectedly sharp. “All I’m asking for is a little cooperation here. You might even have some fun!”

“I’m an assassin, not a storyteller.”

“Oh I know. You aren’t against unwanted expectations or imitations as a theme though?”

“Anything but your hope and despair bullshit is fine.”

“Keebo was the hope part of that, but I suppose we can mess with him a little.”

Maki’s face tightened. “He’s fine as he is.”

“I’ll take it under consideration.” she shrugged, heading back towards the door. “As the mastermind you can pick your own motivation and backstory and your ‘fake’ cover story, so do think on that. Otherwise I’ll have to do it for you and your little machine there.”

The woman was gone before any answers could be given, leaving the two to stare at one another uncomfortably.

“At least you know they are alive?” It was all it could think to say, looking down at the floor. The plan that was not really a plan was looking worse by the day.

“She’s just trying to rattle us. When we’re out of here, we’ll meet up with them.” Maki was stiff, jaw set. “We’ll get our opening.”

* * *

“You need to stop lying to yourself.” Maki’s frustration was evident as the robot looked at the ceiling.

“I am not lying to anyone.”

“She wants you to think you don’t mean anything. You had friends.” she was pulling on her hair again, a gesture that was becoming more common as time passed and lack of escape plan continued to taunt them.

“I do not think I did.” it paused, speaking up before she could refute it. “The people who spent the most time around me were Miu and Kokichi. Miu is an inventor, and interested in machines. Kokichi would very happily say I am not a person.” it shrugged again, ignoring the frustrated groan. “If I do say I had friends, they were not friends with a person.”

“Don’t try and reduce people down that much to fit whatever messed up image they put in your head. You always called the whole class your friend and wanted to survive with everyone.”

“Yes. That me was what you would call an idiot. I know better now”.

“Keebo.” she waited until the robot grudgingly looked at her, still tensed as if it would need to back up quickly. “I’d really rather have a friend right now than something insisting it doesn’t matter.”

“I apologize for being a further disappointment.”

“That’s not what I meant!” A fist hit the wall with a heavy thud. “Just...try to think of yourself as a person, please. I’ll remind you.” Her tone was confusing. Maki did not ask for anything, she simply did. Maki couldn’t be worried, or afraid. She was the strong one.

Had it boiled down complex things like people down too much while in that hell? Over-analyzed to the point of missing the forest for the trees?  
His hands found the mask hidden by the collar, pulling it up and over his face, feeling some need to hide. “I can try. If that is what you want.”

“It should be something you want...but that’s a start. I guess.” her hands tangled in the long brown hair. “I am really, really bad at this motivation thing.”

“And I am bad at being motivated. We match.”

The laughter was weak and brittle, but it did feel right. Warm and comforting, even being here still. Maybe they could believe in this, in ‘us’. Rely on one another and succeed. What if that was just his programmed inclination to chase after hope? He couldn’t tell anymore.

* * *

Every detail that was confirmed or ‘going forward’ felt like another misstep. A location, a tentative title. Monokuma’s role and enforcement abilities. Maki had tried to have all the Monokubs axed, but Tsumugi insisted that Monodam stayed, even with the Exisals written out as unnecessary. The ‘mastermind lair’ general design was finalized, specifically tailored to be comfortable if the pair chose to let one of them ‘die’ and had to hide out of sight. It did seem nice, and that thought just made the guilt worse. None of this should ever be real, or actually seen. Liking any of it was wrong.  
Maki’s face was always stony if it voiced concern about how far along this plan was.  
They would get their chance. It was almost a mantra.  
He was starting to think it may just be a lie to make the guilt go away. Why did he have to start feeling more like an equal and less like the pointless machine it was while detailed files mocked the two of them.  
Surely they should have been gone before needing to select the final fourteen ‘participants’. Each file held multiple designs, overviews and basic motivations. A few were starred, indicating if the character, the person would make a suitable protagonist to root for, usually including a more fleshed out character arc than the others did.  
It would be too far to actually pick fourteen, wouldn’t it? To pick that many people to suffer? Even if it wasn’t going to happen this very second.

They’d already put off looking at the cursed documents as long as possible, the note delivered with Maki’s evening meal today ‘reminding’ her that it had to be done by tomorrow.  
The ‘or else’ didn’t need to be written. They all know it was implied by this point. If he wasn’t so frightened, so easily broken, Maki could have endured the threats and never have had to try ‘going along’ while waiting for someone to slip up.

“What are we going to do?”

“Pick some. It isn’t going to happen, we won’t let it.” She was firm, having a confidence the robot couldn’t even imagine.

“I don’t want to end up like her.” he spoke without thinking, hands fidgeting. Maki’s look of absolute confusion prompted him onward. “Just. Constantly pretending something isn’t real. That lives are playthings.” He sounded foolish, and he knew it. It should have figured a way to get rid of feelings. “If we cannot get away-”

“We will. We’ll stop all of this.” She cut him off sharply.

He shook his head, hands still twisting. “But what if we do not? It is still a possibility...”

“I won’t let it be. Just trust me.”

Trust. Just trust her to make everything work out? They weren’t on a show right now, scripted towards letting’ win. It would be illogical, irresponsible to not plan for that eventuality.

“Are you planning to die if we fail?” It was the only plan he could even think of. “Is that your plan out of this?”

The assassin didn’t answer him at first. “If I was going to do that, I would have before they brought you here.”

“They stopped you. So you couldn’t.” It could remember that much. Yet now she had an extra set of hands. “I can’t get out that way.” It was a stupid thing to say, of course she knew that. He’d been dead to her already.

“I know. That isn’t the plan. It just needs to stay secret.”

That was reasonable. “Okay.” Best not to argue. Blind trust. He wanted facts, something solid and real to lean on, but none would be forthcoming.

Her voice broke the uneasy silence. “I’ll pick all of them, if it’ll make you feel better about it.”

He’d still be guilty, be part of it. Just not as much. “That is not fair to you.”

She gave a dismissive snort, almost a laugh. “Life isn’t fair.”

“...Thank you.” He slumped against a wall, leaving her to the task alone.

* * *

They had not really expected to be separated once put together. Tsumugi coming back and ordering the robot to follow was terrifying. He did not want to go with her anywhere alone, thank you. Yet he wasn’t sure if he could actually get away with disobeying for very long.

“Should have thought of that before you brought him here. Go away.” Maki placed herself between the door and Keebo, having no issues standing up to the woman despite it all.

“How could I? We didn’t have a final design yet.” Tsumugi didn’t seem annoyed by the little act of rebellion, though she probably expected this sort of thing.

“I didn’t see any designs.” Maki’s scowl deepened, perhaps remembering the time she had to waste picking out a ‘mastermind’ look for herself.

“You didn’t need to, it matches with yours. You picked the most boring out of five you know, it really was a shame…”

“Like yours was boring.”

“Mine was more being able to _be_ anyone than my actual look, okay? You’re meant to blindside everyone, survivors aren’t masterminds. Usually.” she was pouting, arms crossed. “A little more flashy would have been nice, that’s all.”

“Assassins aren't flashy.”

“Urgh I know. That’s why it was an option at all.” she shook her head before adjusting her glasses, playful demeanor gone. “Now don’t make me ask a second time.”

“It’s a bit early for a costume change, isn’t it?”

“Little bit! Tech guys need to make sure everything works and keeps working, so the sooner the better. Robots are fiddly things.” Tsumugi walked out of the open door, waiting pointedly beside it.

“You tried?” Keebo muttered, trying to keep from shaking. It couldn’t risk making her angry, it didn’t want to leave here either.

“If I could just reach her…” Maki responded, but didn’t otherwise try to stop her friend from leaving.

The door swinging shut after him felt more final than it should. Just keep your head down, don’t make her more angry.

“It was pretty funny how she broke the antenna so quickly. Pointless, but funny.” her tone was casual as she led the way, occasionally looking back as if to gauge his reaction. Which he did his best to not show at all. What he felt about what she said didn’t matter right now.  
He still wanted to run away from the robotics lab when he set eyes on it, even though that would be both very stupid and very pointless.

“You’re way less fun when you don’t react, but I guess Maki’s helping that a bit.” Tsumugi mused, giving the robot enough of a shove that he stopped being frozen in place and actually went into the room.  
Apparently she had not lied about ‘robots being fiddly’, considering the bear robots were also present, though unmoving and likely off.  
It was told to sit down, and he did, although every part of him wanted to just run for it. Instead his hand reached for his ear, trying to look like an idle itch instead of manipulating buttons. No one told him off, though that might just be because Tsumugi was busy talking to the woman who had some sort of binary tattoo on their arm.

“You sure about all this? K1-B0’s AI does have free will, you know. It’ll be disabled out of testing conditions but still...”

Tsumugi had waved off the concern, but he did not get to hear the response.

Only noting that neither person was where they had been a second ago, because he wasn't even looking at the same wall he had been looking at clued him in that he’d been shut off. That was always weird. The other tip off was Monodam staring up at him from the floor.

“HELLO.”

“Hi?” he answered, trying to adjust how he’d been sitting. Well, more slouched over from being the closest thing to unconscious a machine could manage. It was doable, but everything felt off. He could hear footsteps, so there was probably a human being nearby who’d woken him back up.

“WE-ARE-FRIENDS-NOW. HOW-NICE.”

“Monodam, don’t harass K1-B0. I don’t want to replace your head if he shoots it off.”

“I’m not that violent.” Keebo grumbled. He didn’t like any of the Monokubs, but it wasn’t like the bear was doing anything to him now. It might not even be the same AI. Though he probably wasn’t focusing on the important things right now.

“FRIENDS-DO-NOT-SHOOT-FRIENDS”

He chose to ignore Monodam to glance around. A large, mostly empty place save the two robots, some targets and some sort of viewing window. The person who had spoken was likely safely behind that then. More concerning was the glance at his arm and leg. There was proper reinforced and sturdy steel instead of his more fragile frame, but the design was new. There were no plates attached to a protective mesh, everything was connected. A ‘sleeker’ look, perhaps, but jarring. He missed the green, dark grey to the point of almost black wasn’t a very friendly colour. At least the lights that seemed to come from some of the connected segments glowed the same blue of his eyes instead of red.

“Okay K1-B0, right arm option A, one shot, hold for two and one shot, please and thank you.”

So the question of ‘did he have weapons’ had been answered, though it did take a moment to process what exactly he was being asked to do. Still, whoever it was seemed pleased enough that he’d figured out the weapon that was literally in the palm of his hand. Some sort of electric blast? Not nearly as strong as his cannon had been, but similar.  
Option B was closer to the cannon, considering it literally was the cannon. Re-configuring an arm into a cannon still felt very strange, but whatever weird way the metal of his body fit together had apparently been designed with quick form changes in mind. Of course the bad guys got all the efficient dangerous toys. Which he still wouldn’t want to use on any innocent people.

“I-WISH-I-COULD-DO-THAT.”

“No, you don’t.” He’d much rather be his old self than this ‘updated’ less colourful version. Everything felt heavier, and it was taking ages to re-calibrate his movement to compensate for the difference. “Okay, maybe you do. You shouldn’t.” he corrected himself before the bear could insist.

“THEY-WOULD-HAVE-TO-BE-FRIENDS-IF-I-DID” the bear insisted anyway, trailing after the humanoid robot as he paced the room, trying to adjust without falling over, occasionally failing with a muffled grunt of annoyance.

“Then they wouldn’t really be your friends.” Shooting Monodam was starting to feel more appealing, honestly. It was likely only his irritation at everything feeling wrong talking. At least he looked...similar to before. Just all metal now, and no green and the seams that could glow blue. That and some sort of thrusters in his feet, if he wanted to jump or fly faster.  
Of course, he couldn’t see his face. So that was concerning.

“BETTER-THAN-NO-FRIENDS.”

“I mean it Monodam. Your little brother can kick you across the room.” the voice from outside the room came again.

Now that term rankled. Being ‘related’ to any of the Mono-whatevers was just wrong. “Harming or threatening people is wrong, Monodam.” he sighed.

“NOT-FOR-ME. OR-YOU. IT-IS-OUR-JOB.”

“I’m not like you, okay?”

The bear tilted sideways a little, as if confused. “YES-YOU-ARE? WE-HELP-THE-MASTERMIND.”

Keebo could only scowl and try to ignore the smaller robot, listening for any human requests.  
Was Maki worried about him? This testing was taking a while, and this sort of upgrade had probably taken a week at absolute minimum. Hopefully she wasn’t too worried. It was fine when Tsumugi wasn’t around at least.

Of course his leg managing to fail to work three separate times in three different ways didn’t bode well for a quick return. How long would they really have left? Or was it too late?  
Hoping was all he could do, and he was really starting to hate that word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently yes I will need more than three chapters because I am odd and indecisive.  
> Hopefully it isn't...too repetitive. Part of me is all 'the smaller, subtle changes are too small/not noticeable' but I tried...and this is mostly the It's Angst I Can Do What I Want.  
> Maki you aren't meant to take Kaito's 'bluster your way to victory, don't show weakness' trait, that's one of his negative ones. At least Keebo is...somewhat better? ok not really. he's just a little more on the 'person' side.
> 
> Part of me wants to do a 'Good' ending and a 'Bad' ending, but idono if people would want both.  
> clearly you should say if you want both hahaha. Thanks for reading, any comments are adored c:


	4. Reversal of Fortune

The tests, the re-calibrations and tinkering made it feel like all the time they should have to plan a way out was racing away. He may not really...think Maki truly cared for a machine exactly, but at least she wanted freedom. Unlike Monodam, who seemed perfectly happy to do horrible things for his masters. Even if they weren’t that different, the simple fact the bear enjoyed his orders felt unfair. They were both made for entertainment, but only he had to suffer for doing what his masters built him to do. To be punished, as if he could ever really defy them. If Tsumugi had wanted, he could have a completely different personality. He could be like the cub that insisted on clinging to his shoulder. Yet she chose to have a robot suffer. For Maki’s good behaviour? That might be it...though it still felt weird. The assassin more tolerated him than anything else when he’d been trying to be an equal. He shouldn’t care if it was pointless and vindictive, they could do whatever they wanted with the toys they built.  
Yet the anger persisted. The treatment they suffered, and the ghastly thing Team DanganRonpa was forcing them into. He shouldn’t be dwelling on the pointless platitudes Maki had asked him to play back again and again. They didn’t keep Kaito alive, didn’t save him. They may have saved Shuichi...but did that really matter? The others were humans, it was different for them. Even if their minds had been messed with, they were real. Not like the one who just sat and watched the roboticist root around in his torso to adjust something yet again.

“ _Eyes up_ ”

He looked up at the ceiling. The fact they could talk directly into his head still unsettled him. They had always been able to, but being given such clear directions felt wrong. It wasn’t the whisper, or the feeling that it was the right choice. Just another way for a tool to be told what to do.

“ _The left._ ”

A wall. This was so Maki could communicate with him privately, apparently. He wouldn’t be able to answer, but it wasn’t as if he would have much to say anyway. She would be in charge.  
Not that it was going to happen. They were going to escape. Maki would think of a way out.  
Maybe he had learned something from the killing game after all. The ability to lie.

The day he was deemed complete was still a relief. Maybe he did miss Maki, a bit. Or how she didn’t look at him like the thing he was. It wasn’t unexpected, the way Maki scowled at his unwanted passenger and the woman making sure he went where he’d been told. The robotic Monokub didn’t care how often Keebo tried to insist they were not the same, and certainly not siblings. After all, their creator called them that, and the smaller robot seemed to think Keebo should be happy with his new role and friend. Yet even as the door was closed behind them, and the assumed target of the assassin’s displeasure was gone, her distrust remained. He was a little unsettled that the killing glare extended to him as well. Maybe she’d grown tired of him in his absence?

“What, does she think I want a bunch of robot minions?” Her tone was frigid, and made the fact the question was merely rhetorical obvious.

“NO-JUST-US” Monodam responded anyway, eager to help.

“What one are you then. Don’t really match the bear theme.”

Perhaps they’d used a flashback light on her? No, she still sounded like Maki. Keebo glanced down at himself, not quite sure what had gotten that reaction. He wasn’t the same certainly, but he was still about the same height and general shape. Just more of a dull, streamlined look. Too much grey, the blue glowing lights he did have were more accents than anything. The only good thing about the loss of the bulkier dark green armour was not matching with Monodam’s general colour scheme. Yet surely she could infer who he was?

“K1-B0-V-0.2.-HE-DOES-NOT-FOLLOW-THE-NAME-SCHEME.”

He frowned at the bear, shrugging a shoulder in a weak attempt to dislodge him again. “I’m not using your full designation of version 27, am I?”

Monodam retained his perch easily, almost looking a little smug. “SHE-ASKED-I-ANSWERED-TO-THE-BEST-OF-MY-ABILITY.”

Maki’s glare softened slightly as she bit at a knuckle. “Is it you, Keebo?”

“Y-Yes? Is something wrong?” He found his hands reaching for the side of his head again, reassuring himself that everything at his ear was the same. It had been one of the first things he’d checked once they’d stopped watching him as closely, after all. He still had the tape recorder, and anything it overheard. Unless they’d reset it…

She hesitated for a moment too long. “No.”

Well, it wasn’t his place to question her about it. “I was not able to check if I recorded anything useful, but we can check it when you want.”

“Should we be talking about this around him?”

“I-SERVE-THE-MASTERMIND”

“He’s trying to get on my good side. You cannot really trust either of us, however I do not think Monodam plans to report anything.”

“LITTLE-BROTHER-IS-A-FRIEND”

“We aren’t siblings!” Exasperation cracked his preference to remain monotone, the teasing, the familiar feeling of simple, meaningless arguments making his chest hurt. It was foolish, a squabble between two heartless machines. Why did he even care?

“Whatever. If he tries anything, I’ll stop him.”

Monodam stared blankly at the threat before hopping to the table, watching the other two with rapt attention even as they remained silent.

“How much longer do we have?” He spent too much time powered off to really keep track of the days.

She hesitated a little, eyes wandering as if to avoid looking at his left side. “A month.”

The false guilt found his insides and crushed them into a heavy weight, no matter how hard he tried to dismiss them as nothing but a pointless calculation. He didn’t really feel bad about fourteen humans who would almost certainly be kidnapped, even if they escaped. He didn’t feel anything! “So everything is finalized.” They’d be murderers, even if they were absent.

“I know the route out of here, we just need to get out. We’ll win.” Her hand at his shoulder was forceful and confident, even if he struggled to see how she could possibly have any hope. “Just remember that idiot.”

That idiot was dead. Yet he nodded anyway, assuming that is what Maki wanted to see. “My weapons are disabled.”

The assassin nodded. “They aren’t that stupid. We just need to know how to unlock them.”

They were banking on hoping he had heard the command while out cold. Fumbling to play the tape back didn’t make it seem more likely.

“CAN-I-HELP”

“Try to break Maki’s leg chain.” He said it just to distract the cub, and was more than a little surprised when the little bear toddled to the center of the room to start messing with the heavy iron chain. That would probably keep him occupied...while he and Maki simply listened to what the tape had captured. It wasn’t silent, but the nagging doubt refused to move.

There was a good deal of useless noise, muttering and clanks. Being taken apart was a noisy business. Yet the scraps of conversation did not help. There were ideas, voices asking to pass parts around and some general banter. Nothing that stood out to him as valuable information. Yet Maki did not look distressed. She almost seemed to relax, a hint of a smile on her face.

“All we need to do is show her what she’s expecting, and we’ll walk right out of here.”

“I do not see how I can help with this.”

“Didn’t you hear it? Whatever they were keying in always sounded the same. It might take a few tries, but it’s easy enough to crack.”

Well, assassins did need to get into places they shouldn’t in order to kill their targets, but he hadn’t even noticed such a sound. “If you say so?”

“I do.” Simple and to the point.

It wasn’t the most complicated plan, as long as they were actually able to get everything they needed. The fact it took them four additional days to decide on it did not help their combined stress levels, but in some ways it was a good thing. Surely their guards would have been up now that their machine could potentially be a threat again. A few days of nothing might reassure them that there was nothing to fear, and that they’d won. Even if in some ways they had won...but he was trying not to think about that.

Still, letting Maki keep typing sequences under his metal plating wasn’t as much of a struggle as he thought it might be. It took a bit to walk her through how to move parts correctly and actually find the hidden panel tucked behind the sensitive wiring, but he didn’t feel the pressing fear Tsumugi or the other humans caused. She could easily damage him as an excuse, or use it as part of her escape plan. Yet she didn’t...and he trusted her not to. It was foolish to do that, illogical to think Maki wouldn’t just ditch him at the first opportunity. Maybe he just wanted to believe the lie again. More likely, she just needed his weaponry for now.

“That was it.” He spoke up after a moment of hesitation, feeling more than seeing a change. He had not exactly noticed his body had felt empty in places until electricity started coursing through it again, the mechanisms keeping him away from his more dangerous tools removed. No wonder everything felt odd, with large chunks of himself completely beyond his use until a moment ago. Their possible options expanded dramatically, but their main issues remained the same. The second they were spotted, the instant they knew of their escape, his weapons could easily be turned on Maki. “Are you sure this plan will work?” He couldn’t help asking as he pulled his mask up to cover his face. Waiting until dark would keep them from being discovered by some normal day to day worker, but it wasn’t going to keep the people who practically lived in the building away.

“It will. Stop worrying.” She moved away after covering the service panel, giving the robot space to check everything was actually working. “Move, bear.”

“I-TRIED-VERY-HARD” As if they didn’t know, considering Monodam’s failed attempts could get rather noisy. The cub had ended up kicked away from it more than once for trying as the soul human in the room tried to sleep.

“I will hit you if you do not move.” His arm gave a slight whine as it charged enough to fire, letting loose as soon as Monodam moved away from the chain. It was loud, bright, and completely unsubtle but the chain snapped from the blast. That was all it had to do.

Maki kicked over the table, grabbing the length of chain still stuck around her ankle with a slight frown. “We don’t have time to make it shorter, get the door.”

Already with unforeseen problems...but he nodded, adjusting his aim and using his other arm to keep on target before firing again. They both winced from the sound as the door was ripped from its hinges and slammed into the far wall with a crack, an encore of loosened plaster dropping with the impact. It was just as good as an alarm and they both knew it.

“Monodam, we’re playing hide and seek. Go find somewhere to hide, as fast as you can.” The assassin crouched down to give the instruction, almost as if out of habit.

“OH-I-LIKE-GAMES” The cub seemed completely unbothered by the destruction at the idea of a game, heading through the open door with no hesitation. Keebo watched him go down the left hallway and shot out both cameras with an electrical crack before glancing back at Maki.

“...Orphanage trick?”

“Something like that. You know what to do.” She maintained eye contact for an extra second before ducking behind the overturned table.

This would be the worst part. He did not like this part of the plan at all. It relied too much on what others should do. Yet Maki was in charge. So he let go of an anxious, useless breath, went to the wall and sat down, hands clutching at his knees. Wait. All of their plans had too much waiting.

“So she _was_ smart enough to abandon you again.”

He couldn’t help but tense at her voice, the scrambling crackling fear wanting him to run, but also screaming he should not. She’d punish him, and he’d go back to being it, and he should never have stopped being an it. He needed to answer her. “I was to wait here.”

Her laugh was too carefree, too confident and it made him doubt everything again. “You still can’t admit she always planned to get away without you? You really are just plain simple, aren’t you.” She entered the room without hesitation, glad to loom over the machine that had sent the door flying.

As he was completely harmless to her. He wasn’t allowed to fire at her, unlocked weapons or not. Tsumugi knew it, and so did the robot. He kept his eyes down, as if his legs were suddenly of the utmost importance to him.

“I asked you a question, Keebo.”

He didn’t want to look at her. “She said she’d come back.” Anxious hands clanked against his knees, louder than his voice.

“Do you really think she will? Even after you had Monodam be a distraction for you?” The fact she sounded like she genuinely cared to hear the answer, that she didn’t already know what he said was unsettling. To put on a friendly, harmless face in seconds was jarring in a way. He expected the malice and the hate, had been prepared for it. He wasn’t for...this simpering, kindly questioning.

“I do not.” He sounded hollow admitting it.

“Oh really? So why did you listen?”

He looked up at the smiling face, wondering if his eyes were dim or not. “I obey the commands I am given. She is the one in charge.”

“True, you’re obedient.” She crouched in front of the robot, a grin that reminded him of a cat with a canary on her face. “What if I said you didn’t have to obey her anymore?”

“I would no longer need to obey the order to remain here.”

“Exactly!” She stood back up again, waving to tell him to do the same. “It isn’t really fair that they all abandoned you, is it?”

How could she speak like this, when she spent so much time reminding him that he was her possession? A liar through and through, but it still made parts of him believe it. The reminder of being abandoned, that she wasn’t the only one treating him like a tool. “Nothing is fair.”

He still flinched as she grabbed him around the shoulder and pulled him close, as if they were conspiring something. “I think I have a better set of orders for you to follow Keebo.”

“I follow orders regardless of their quality.”

“Since you seem so eager to play with those new weapons of yours, why don’t we have you use them? After all, there’s an assassin I need someone to deal with.”

He looked away, his back pressing hard against the wall and her grip as he tried to tune her out. He understood the implication very well, but it wasn’t explicit enough to make him do anything. If she wanted something quick to kill, she shouldn’t have made him dislike violence.

“Of course, once she’s dealt with we’d still need a replacement. We could get the whole gang back together! Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“They haven’t done anything wrong. It would be against the rules to chase after them now.”

“Silly robot. I make the rules.”

He looked up, meeting her gaze with a heedless, reckless confidence. “That behaviour is what led to your original downfall, did it not?”

Tsumugi’s smile seemed to crack, a flash of that irritated loathing he remembered seeping through as she adjusted her glasses. “So you do have a bit of a spine again! Good.”

“I would be able to move without an equivalent regardless. Your comment is nonsensical.” It took effort to not react when the narrow hands grabbed his collar for his deadpan response. It was so much harder to pretend Tsumugi was someone else when she grabbed him like this. The others didn’t=the others wouldn’t jerk him around physically. A bit of a lie, but he couldn’t show he felt anything right now.

“Cute. It would be better if you could get Shuichi and Himiko alive, but we only really need one.”

At least his mask was covering half of his face, she couldn’t know if he was frowning or not. Maki had been right. They wouldn’t be safe until Tsumugi was dealt with. “What would you do with the spare, then?”

“Hmm? A little worried about the ones who forgot about you?”

“I do not worry about anything.”

“I was thinking we could have a little fun with it!” She finally let him go, suppressing a laugh as he slumped against the wall in his eagerness to get a little bit of distance. “Really, the only important part of Shuichi is his brain, isn’t it? That calculating little mind.”

“Humans die without bodies, I am fairly certain.” He really, really didn’t want to hear what messed up plans she had for his friends. Yet he was still here, stuck waiting. Maybe-no, no he had to trust Maki here…

“Oh they do. But there are ways to work around that. You’d like to have a friend more like you, wouldn’t you?”

She couldn’t possibly be suggesting- “I doubt you care about what I would ‘like’, as Monodam is ‘like me’ already.”

“True, it wouldn’t be exactly the same. But I think our suddenly brave detective might rethink his actions all the same.” Tsumugi’s smile remained in spite of her uncooperative audience, adjusting a sleeve before continuing. “After all, he might have more sympathy for an AI if he’s just a mind in a robot body himself.”

“Y-You can’t do that!” He broke, shoulders tense at the very idea of such a thing, unable to remain impassive. “He’d die!”

Her laugh just made him feel as if he’d wandered into a dark room and heard the door slam shut behind him. “No, his new body would keep him alive. Really he’d be a cyborg of a sort...not quite like you, but he’d understand being restricted just like any other toy.” Tsumugi ruffled his hair at the ‘toy’ barb, ignoring his attempt to dodge it. “He’d actually be human on the inside...but who would really care? He never cared how human you seemed after all.”

“That seems excessive for a revenge plot.” He was at a loss, unable to grasp why anyone would be so pointlessly cruel. He knew she could be monstrous, but he could somewhat understand the ease of inflicting pain to a machine. Shuichi was a fellow human, and still she wanted to do something like that? As if what she’d put them all through already had not been enough?

“Well, you could always just kill him instead. I only need one after all.”

It would likely be better than being back in Team Danganronpa’s clutches at any rate.”Or I could kill them both.”

“You won’t. You’ll find them, but you’re only allowed to spare one with death. Or neither, if you want some revenge of your own…”

“So you’re ordering me to leave here and find them?” He asked, stubbornly ignoring the implication. He was an emotionless fake, not a _monster_.

“Mhm. You should probably keep your mask on, you’ll never get close to them otherwise.”

His confusion kept him from responding briefly, having to actively keep his hand from pulling at the mask. What she said didn’t matter, he had to keep his hand clear and wait. The robot scrambled for an excuse, not wanting the silence to count as ignoring her. “It is meant for combat. I would be more intimidating with it, not less.”

“Ohhh, did Maki not tell you? Did she worry about hurting your little simulated feelings?” She was on him like a leech, hands gripping his shoulders so he couldn’t pull away. “Didn’t even ask you what you were grinning about?”

The robot did not want to know what Tsumugi meant. Not while she almost seemed to glow with delight of dangling the information in front of him. “I have not been grinning?”

“It’s a family trait Keebo. You had to look the part somehow, you know? Lets people know whose side you’re on.”

He was putting pieces together, but trying not to. Even if it was simple enough if you thought about what sort of ‘family’ trait had to do with grinning. Instead he studied the floor, counting seconds.

“I-HAVE-RETURNED-UNFOUND-I-WIN” Monodam announced as he toddled through the open door, drawing both of the room’s occupant’s attention. The robot braced himself against the wall as Tsumugi looked away.

So she didn’t spot Maki leaping from behind the overturned table like a demon out of hell, decking the blue haired woman with a chain covered fist. The sickening crack of metal against bone followed by a softer thud as he shoved the unconscious woman away shouldn’t be a joyful sound, but it certainly made him feel a bit better.

“I hope that fucking hurt.” she growled at the unconscious mastermind, raising a foot as if she intended to slam it down on her exposed neck.

The words were out before his mind could tell him it was foolish. “Y-You shouldn’t kill her. You are not a murderer, not really.”

Her glare made him flinch. “You can’t be serious.”

“You made me keep listening to Kaito’s words. He said you are not a killer. It is true, you have never actually killed anyone. She only made you think you did.”

“Well then she can be the first.” There was no amusement, no victory in her eyes. “She’s not living to do this shit again.”

The feelings were obnoxious, making him want to stop her at any cost. She’d mean more to Shuich and Himiko if she could go back to them without blood on her hands. The assassin who never killed would regret it later, regret it every time she remembered the one that believed in her to the end. “I did not say let her live. I said that you should not kill her.”

“ARE-WE-LEAVING?”

Her frown deepened, but she lowered her leg. “You don’t really think Monodam can kill her, do you?”

“No.” He shook his head, trying to quiet the arguing logic shrieking in his head. To defy them was danger, to act like a person was idiotic. Yet if the source of the danger was gone, if there was no more fear of retaliation, wasn’t it more logical...to be the machine he was if it would protect his friends? “However, I can do so, easily. Just not directly.” He would not enjoy it. He wouldn’t even like it, but it was necessary.

“You?” Maki’s frown deepened as she looked to the robot. “You don’t even like hurting people-”

“I have already done it once. One of us is already a murderer, no need to make it two. We need to leave before they realize you are not running through the building at all.” He didn’t give her time to respond, the ear splitting explosion from the missile meeting wall a distracting roar. He could hear her coughing from the smoke and now floating dust, but pushed forward to look out of the hole.

A city, still bright even in the night. They had to be downtown somewhere, in some fancy office building. Being unnoticed had become substantially more difficult, but Maki could get lost in the crowd easily enough, once she was clear of the building that suddenly had its thirtieth floor become a roaring maelstrom of explosives anyway.

“Do you think you can find a way down, or will we need to stay together?”

Maki’s eyes were narrowed, peeking out from between her arm and hastily pulled up shirt. “I see some handholds.” She paused to cough again, her split second mask unable to keep all the irritants in the air away. “What are you going to do with her?”

“Drop the ceiling as we leave. I should be enough of a distraction that they may not notice you climbing down.” Saying it made him shudder, but he just took the motion as an excuse to get the jets folded out of his back. Killing again, flying again...trying to have the best results for his friends. Maybe he really hadn’t learned anything. Was this something he wanted? He didn’t have to help. Was he obeying Maki out of a lingering need to obey humans after all? He was turning his back on the reason he existed, doing things like this.

Maki was already halfway out of the ‘new window’, apparently having picked out a path already. “How do you plan on finding me after we’re out? We need a meeting spot.”

“I doubt I would be able to land anywhere in a city unnoticed.”

“No. We still need somewhere. Just hoping to be lucky and spotting one another isn’t going to work.” she was wasting time, still clinging to the edge instead of making her way down.

“I still technically need to find Shuichi and Himiko.” It had been an order, after all. The last one Tsumugi would get to give. “I’ll find the first sign north of the city and wait nearby. Now go, the building will only be more unstable once I do this.”

“You better.”

He half expected her to ask him if he wished to die, but she set off without further comment. He tracked her path down for a few minutes, unsure how much time he should give for her to get ahead.

“ARE-YOU-LEAVING-ME-HERE?” Monodam stared up at their fellow robot, still uninterested in the general mess that had been made. “I-WOULD-PREFER-TO-COME”

“...I can carry you.” The little robot had helped in the plan. It wasn’t his fault he was made to be a strangely murderous bear. Keebo did slightly regret agreeing when Monodam just climbed up his leg as if he was a jungle gym, forcing him to hastily wrap his free arm around the smaller machine. He didn’t exactly have a shoulder that would be a good idea to be hanging off of, right now. Unless you liked getting pulverized by jets. It was a bit hard to tell with the monokubs.

“MORE-EXPLOSIONS?”

“One last time.”

Kicking off the ground and staying aloft still felt wrong, but he forced the thoughts away. He’d never been human anyway, it was a foolish hangup to have. Two shots up should bring enough building down to crush anything left in that room. He just had to keep avoiding part of the room, leave it out of his calculations. It wasn’t murder if it wasn’t his main objective. Logically, it still was. Perhaps they had not anticipated his AI being able to adapt to being much more ‘flexible’ about how he should adhere to rules written into his code. Still, he did hesitate. It wasn’t like the inner voice that he often fell back on for advice. He only had his own thoughts arguing if this was really right. This was his choice, wasn’t it? Could he really make those?

Maybe it was stupid. Perhaps all he was doing was deluding himself again.  
He didn’t want to just be what he was built to be.  
He never had. Not really. It was just easier. Safer.  
Did he have to be a human to live for himself? Was he really doing so? He was motivated to do this by Maki, after all. For her sake, and those he’d thought of as friends.  
They might not truly be friends. They knew him when he relied and followed voices that were not his own.  
Yet maybe he still wanted to try to be their friends.  
The only way that could happen was with the end of Tsumugi Shirogane. Perhaps more, if the rest of the company kept after them.

He heard the sound flesh splitting, even if he didn’t see any blood after firing the missile, too busy getting out of the way of the death he’d caused to fall down. It might have been concrete against concrete, but part of him knew one of the snaps didn’t fit the rest.  
He should feel guilt, or shame.

Yet he felt nothing at all. Perhaps a bit of relief. Those emotions chose now to break, or were continuing to be more complicated than really seemed necessary. He didn’t get to linger long, even if the metal he was made up of was darker, people couldn’t miss the glowing thing in the sky. The shouts were unintelligible, unimportant, but a reminder he had to get going. It would be hard to meet up with the others if he was shot down, after all.

Even at the outskirts of the city, the world seemed too bright. Gonta had mentioned the stars back in their false reality, but Keebo could barely make any out with the lights on the ground drowning the far off stars out. That, and it was noisy with little vehicles screaming by at high speeds to some unknown destination. It was probably to his advantage, to know most would be in too much of a hurry to notice a pair of robots lurking under the dull concrete bridge. Monodam had jumped the first few times a truck had passed overhead, but it happened enough to dull that worry.

“SO-WE-WAIT”

They were both glancing at the sign, which had the distance to the city written on it. Not very memorable, but it was the first he’d spotted out here. “That would be the plan.”

Which meant it wasn’t much of a plan. Maki might never make it out here. Either intentionally, or unintentionally. He might be able to simply wait longer than most, but certainly not forever. Flying and discharging large blasts of electricity wasn’t exactly easy on the battery. A day, maybe two before he had to solve that problem, which he couldn’t do out here.  
He could leave entirely. Never see any of them again. It could be in his best interest, to take time to figure out what he actually wanted anymore. Was it running away, or sensible. The harder way, or the easy way out? It was too many questions, but he didn’t want to ask the tag along cub any of them. He was a bit too single minded for that sort of thing.

They knew eighteen hours later that Maki had not fallen to her death, or otherwise perished, but the way she held her hands to avoid disturbing open wounds only proved her path had been the trickier one. She still moved quicker than the robot expected, darting over as soon as she spotted their hiding spot “Had to sleep before walking out here. Sorry.”

“Did you get food? Locating Himiko and Shuichi may take a great deal of time. We do not even know where to begin looking.”

“I can find food anywhere.” Her stoney expression dared him to argue that point, sitting to join the robots under the bridge. “I don’t think we need to worry, though.”

“That’s wishful thinking. All we know is they were at a place that had something park like at some point. That is almost nothing to go on.”

“You forgot something.” A genuine smile found it’s way to Maki’s face “Shuichi is a detective. I don’t think he would have too much trouble locating us.”

“I expect our escape would be rather noticeable. Do you really think he would assume it is you and come looking?”

“Obviously. They wouldn’t give up so easily.”

“Kaito’s sidekicks stick together?” Just believing that the others would come...because they would believe that she lived and wanted to find them. Irrational, really. Yet it didn’t seem impossible. Believing in them...didn’t feel wrong.

“Everyone who’s alive sticks together.” The correction was kind, even if Keebo still didn’t quite feel like that applied to him.

“ME-TOO”

“You too. As long as you behave.”

“I-WILL-BE-ON-MY-BEST-BEARHAVIOUR”

Keebo and Maki shared a pained look at the pun, half wondering if it would be worth it. “Do you want to die?”

“NO-I-WOULD-NOT-THANK-YOU”

“Let’s go. Further out if we get you some clothes you won’t stick out as much.” She got back to her feet in one easy motion, eyeing the highway. “You think stealing a car at these speeds might be noticed?”

“It would be abnormal at the very least.” It took a moment for why she was asking that to click into place. “We are not stealing a vehicle.”

“We got a lot of ground to cover. You can’t carry much, right?”

“I can lift more than before, but I would be unable to fly with a passenger.”

“So our options are walking, or finding faster transport. We need a car.”

“Or we can choose to not go very far away. We can double back, or find some quieter area.”

“If we can’t find somewhere, I’ll need you to help with the car.”

He had a terrible feeling that they would be stealing by the end of the day.

* * *

Breaking into a home that appeared to be unused had been easier than expected. Maki claimed it was typical for perfectly good houses to stand empty because it wasn’t selling, and would be safe enough to hole up in as they tried to figure out how to find their remaining friends. She proved to be correct again, the home a perfectly fine shelter. Maki was never questioned when coming or going, the humans who lived nearby either thought she belonged, or simply didn’t care that the home had acquired a pair of squatters.

He had started to try and pick up new hobbies, as focusing too long on their singular task just led to frustration and going in circles. Clicking the colourful pieces together in order to reassemble an image was slightly satisfying, it felt like he was achieving something. He doubted it would remain entertaining, as it felt like he was cheating by noticing the shapes more than the image. Though wasn’t there a kind like that? He scowled at the pieces, mechanical fingers drumming the exact same motion repeatedly as he puzzled over that fact.

A voice got him to stop. “You don’t need to keep your mask up all the time.”

“I prefer it.” He didn’t look up, but chose to stop making so much noise to keep from drawing her attention again.

Conversations still felt awkward and out of place, but not as odd as the clothing he had to use as camouflage. It fit well enough, not constantly catching or twisting on metal plates. The lack of bulky armor let him still look like what you expected a human to look like, but it was still weird. Trying to be something he wasn’t again, because it was safer. Not that it mattered, really. The left side of his face would always give the game away.

“If you say so.” Maki did not look convinced, but went back to pouring over the past news, looking for a glimpse of their friends. It had been a bit of a media circus when there had been such a dull ending, but it had mostly focused on that aspect. Not the important part, like where the two had escaped off to.

The sound he made in response was noncommittal. The irritated grunt Maki made back was expected. A lot of conversations ended that way. A bit of pushing and then backing down, and it went both ways. It was just easier to just exist in one another’s presence than try and change anything. They’d escaped. They should be safe, mostly. If they were not worth the effort or danger of finding again, all they needed to do was keep their heads down. So there was no real motivation to actually change, really. Facing any lingering issues might just dredge up new problems to face.

The knock at the door should have been startling. Maki should be springing to her feet and glaring at the door while he backed away. Yet they didn’t. Maybe something in the knock told them it wasn’t someone who had their worst interests in mind. Maki was still cautious, of course, but didn’t look as if she intended to turn the door to splinters for daring to have someone outside it. Keebo still pulled his hood up and fumbled for gloves, but didn’t feel like he had to duck under a table. Monodam thankfully didn’t come to investigate the noise, but he’d be easier to explain as some weird merchandise, at least.

A familiar set of faces greeted her, then actually caught her off guard as Himiko bolted forward to grab her found friend in a hug. “It was you! We knew it!”

The brunette looked lost for a long moment before hugging the redhead back. “I knew you two would be waiting.”

Shuichi hung back a little, just as surprised by the sudden show of affection, but his smile was just as joyful. “It wasn’t easy, but I hoped you’d wait for us.”

“Some detective you are, it’s been weeks.” She teased her friend, her smile mirroring his. “Come in. People might notice if you stay there.”

Keebo wasn’t too sure he actually wanted to be seen as they ducked through the door. They knew Maki had been alive. He was dead twice over in comparison. A robot messing up their emotional, heartfelt reunion. He was tempted to hide but Shuichi couldn’t help but notice the extra body in the house near the incomplete puzzle.

“Oh, did you have help?” The detective’s unease was obvious, his more relaxed posture snapping back to the more rigid stiffness he had every time a class trial was held. The robot didn’t move, falling back on the easier option to let Maki decide what happened for him.

“I didn’t just find explosives lying around.” Maki rolled her eyes before glancing over at the hooded robot. Apparently she was leaving him to fend for himself.

“Well it wasn’t my magic, but it was flashy!” The magician finally let go, adjusting the thick fuzzy sweater to dispel some lingering static. “So you convince em to help? Since they’re still around?”

“Something like that.” He spoke, though he kept his voice low. He still didn’t really feel comfortable about them knowing who he was. Humans didn’t just magically revive, so it was just another way he was weird and out of place.

Shuichi took a few steps forward at his voice, face pulling into a puzzled frown. “You sound...familiar?”

Himiko was less cautious. “You know we’re friends now, you don’t have to keep wearing the hood. Duh.”

Keebo let out a sigh, but pulled the hood back down, careful to only show his right side to the pair. “Hi Shuichi, Himiko.”

“You’re alive!” The mage didn’t seem to have an issue with this, startling him with a tackle. “We thought you were dead!”

“...I was dead. I got better.” The robot struggled with wanting to thank her for the concern and the selfish thought that she’d never really cared before he’d gotten killed. “You two have been faring well?”

“Neyh. Well enough. Better now.” she let go, squinting at the robot. “You have terrible fashion sense.”

“It’s to hide, not to look good!” he said indignantly, but removed the gloves before crossing his arms. “Your sweater is just as loose as mine.”

“Yeah, but it isn’t _yellow_!”

The pointless bickering was nice. He could focus on it, and not on the doubt in Shuichi’s eyes, or the way he’d stepped back and leaned closer to Maki to mutter something. It was right to be suspicious, but it still made him uncomfortable.

“HELLO.” Monodam’s wave hello was not met with one in return.

“A Monokub followed you!” She was already backing away from the bear robot that had walked into the room, looking at Maki.

“He’s fine. He helped us in the escape, so I brought him along.” Keebo explained, trying to ignore how the detective’s gaze only darkened.

“YES-IT-WOULD-NOT-HAVE-BEEN-NICE-TO-BE-CRUSHED” the bear nodded before wandering to where Keebo was seated, deciding it was best to keep closer to their fellow robot. “YOU-ARE-A-GOOD-SIBLING”

“I told you to please refrain from calling me that.”

“First one tries to make you their dad, and now you’re siblings...bears are weird…” Himiko recovered quickly enough, but still edged away from the cub.

“Yes I’m sure Shuichi, don’t be that suspicious.” Maki snapped, drawing both of their attention.

“Okay, okay! It’s just a little weird, is all…” Shuichi looked away, reaching for a hat that wasn’t there.

“He’s right to doubt me Maki, it’s fine.” he fiddled with the edge of his hood, tempted to pull it up again. “I am one of their robots in the end.”

No! I-I’m not doubting you. I more meant DanganRonpa might have done something you’re unaware of.” he stopped talking with a mumbled sorry, rubbing the back of his head and looking at the floor.

“It is possible. Monodam and I can remain here, if you prefer.” Saying it was easy enough, even as something inside protested that it wouldn’t be fair. It was childish, that feeling. It couldn’t make up it’s mind either, wanting to befriend them but also feeling like they could not be trusted, and he should keep away. For their sake, or his own? Calculations were difficult when you spent so much time with one set, then went and tried to get a different answer later and expecting it to change. The fact the answer did change just made it more puzzling, since both were right, at one point. Contradiction after contradiction.

“Absolutely not. If they had something, they would have found us by now.” The glare Maki gave him was enough to make the robot duck more of his face behind his closed collar, even though part of him knew she would not actually harm him.

“...Not if they wanted to find all of us first.”

Keebo cut in before Maki could try coming to his defense again. “He has a point, Maki. Shuichi is a detective after all. He’s meant to deduce things like this.” The antenna may be long gone, but they all knew he had been completely unaware of his real purpose the first time. Being rebuilt to be useful in a different way was only a logical conclusion, even if it made the electricity that coursed through his chest feel hot and painful. It could be true, no matter what he wanted.

“Well it’s not like we can’t come back.” Himiko shrugged, pointing back at the door they’d come from. “Both of us can drive no problem and we know where to look.”

“I assume Maki could also use the vehicle, considering we almost stole one.”

“We missed out on that?” Instead of being properly disappointed in the almost criminal behaviour, the magician seemed excited by the idea.

“I still don’t like it.” she folded her arms, leaning against the wall as she observed her friends. “We only got this far believing in one another.”

“It would just be temporary…” Shuichi still looked unsure, rocking on to his heels. “Just making sure they can’t track us down.”

“I am rather good at waiting. Do not tell me when you plan to return.” If they did plan to return. He couldn’t blame them if they did not, and took the chance to just be the three survivors again. “I would not want you to be in peril again when it can be easily checked for.”

The humans got to bickering over the right thing to do as Keebo and Monodam watched. Waiting for people to decide for him again, as always. He didn’t really want to change that, it made things easier. Checking would not actually be that simple, as if they could still see what he did, they could simply wait until they all returned. He could have a chip that could be tracked with GPS. There were plenty of ways for his existence to be a perpetual issue to the safety of the group. It would be easier to just go along with whatever the rest chose.  
He pulled down his mask. He would likely be alone soon enough, so he had to start getting used to the mess he had for a face now instead of hiding it all the time. If it got his friends uncomfortable so they left faster, all the better.

It was no surprise Shuichi noticed first, recoiling a little though he did his level best not to look too put off by it. It’s too much like Monokuma’s to not react like that, seeing that too large toothy grin and the weird angular gash he called an eye. At least his was blue and not red, or black like the kubs. One small upside.

Still, none of them actually say anything about it, even if eyes tend to try and look at the half that still looks like him, and not the ‘family’ he belongs to. Maybe if any of them knew the slightest thing about machines, they could think about replacing it. But as things were, it was something he’d simply have to accept. Even if he would prefer breaking it. He did need to see, after all.  
The added discomfort that both robots would be watching them with that sneer did seem to work, however.

“We’ll come back. I promise.” Maki looked at him without flinching, holding both shoulders so he looked right at her.

“Just keep safe. I can defend myself if trouble finds us.” He couldn’t tell if he wanted to believe the promise or not.

“I can defend them too, you know that.”

“True enough. We will wait.” It wasn’t as if he had any better plans, or places to hide. Monodam was perfectly happy to simply be wherever he was.

“Believe in me.”

“The impossible is possible, I know, I know.” It was one of the few things she insisted he had to listen to multiple times. Even if it wasn’t really meant for him, the former ultimate astronaut’s words could almost feel like a truth instead of ridiculous, baseless nonsense.

He still watched the car leave for a long time before returning inside. They would come back, as friends. He wasn’t sure they should, or if he would be happier away from humans after all, but they would come back. Maki had promised.  
Even if it wasn’t logical, he wanted to believe in it. So he would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ambiguous but mostly happy ending yay?  
> I am sorry it took so very long to finish, I kept wanting to add more, but felt it wasn't going right and shelve it, and come back and yaddayaddayadda  
> They're definitely not 100%, but things are at least better, and might keep getting so.  
> hopefully you enjoyed my weird self indulgent mess :v


End file.
